A SUMMARY 

OF THE 

CHRISTIAN FAITH 



A SUMMARY 



OF THE 



CHRISTIAN FAITH 



By HENRY EYSTER JACOBS, D.D., LL.D. 

NORTON PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY LUTHERAN THEO- 
LOGICAL SEMINARY AT PHILADELPHIA 




PHILADELPHIA 

GENERAL COUNCIL PUBLICATION HOUSE 

1522 ARCH STREET 

1905. 



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COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY THE 

BOARD OF PUBLICATION OF THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE 

EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH IN 

NORTH AMERICA. 




TO THE 

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AMONG WHOM MY LIFE HAS BEEN PASSED, 

THIS VOLUME 

IS 

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 

BY 

THEIR FELLOW-STUDENT. 



PREFACE 



A N attempt is here made to restate the doctrines of the Chris- 
tian Faith upon the basis of the Lutheran Confessions. 
Hutter's Compend, an English translation of which, a number of 
years ago, served a good purpose, suggested the mode of treat- 
ment as well adapted to the use of theological students, intelli- 
gent laymen, and active pastors. While no important technical 
theological term is ignored and the aim is to explain whatever 
enters into the form as well as the material of Theology, a schol- 
astic treatment is avoided as far as possible. We have endeavored 
to gather results, and embody them in concise definitions, sup- 
ported by condensed arguments, drawn largely from our Con- 
fessions and Luther, and our theologians, as well as, in not a few 
cases, from those of other communions. The book, however, is 
not a mere compilation, but the matured expression of the con- 
victions of the author, from the time when, as a child he was in- 
troduced to many of the problems treated, to the present. 

On certain living questions, widely and hotly agitated, greater 
space and freedom of discussion was allowed, that a candid 
testimony might be given on every important topic, for which the 
book may be consulted. It is not offered as the final word of 
controversy on any point, but as a starting point and suggestion 
of earnest thought. 

An injustice, we believe, is done some of the great dogmati- 
cians of our Church, when their works are criticised because of 
the dryness and scholastic form of their treatment. Where the 
effort is made to condense the entire compass of Divine Revela- 
tion into the compact form of a brief volume, the book becomes 
little more than an index and guide. Men become theologians, 
not by committing such text-books ; but by clothing the outline 
with flesh from their constant study of Holy Scripture and 

vii. 



VU1. PREFACE. 

Christian experience, whether as read in Church History, or 
recognized in their own lives, and those nearest them. The living 
teacher makes the text-book -Only the thread of what he gives his 
students. In writing this volume, we have often felt condemned 
as though it were, wrong to hurry over themes that offered such 
rich suggestions for edifying treatment. 

Material pertaining to the History of Doctrine has been intro- 
duced only to a very limited extent. The scope of this book is 
one of results. For the process, whereby those results have been 
attained, we have another book in prospect, if life and strength 
should be spared to undertake it. 

The Scripture Proof Texts are intended to be accurate trans- 
lations of the Original. No space is lost by discussing inaccu- 
racies of translations. Except in only three or four passages, 
they are from the best English translation of the New Testament, 
the American Revised Version, which we cordially recommend 
to all students and pastors. 

Acknowledgments are due my son, the Rev. Charles M. Jacobs, 
for valuable assistance not only in revising the manuscript, and 
in aiding me in seeing it through the press, but also in numerous 
important suggestions in almost every chapter, concerning the 
treatment that have been adopted. A number of pages were also 
read by President Haas, of Muhlenberg College, my associate on 
"The Lutheran Cyclopedia"; and his kind notes were highly 
valued, and have contributed to the result. We bear, however, 
full responsibility for all that is here found. 

If this book will be of service in proving that the faith of our 
Fathers is capable of being expressed in the English language in 
what is not a mere translation, and in aiding in restatement of 
Lutheran doctrine in a form adapted to a new land and new age; 
if it will be the means of representing correctly the spirit of 
Lutheranism to the religious world and theological circles in 
America; if, even to a small measure, it will bring our separated 
churches and schools to a realization not only of what is con- 
tained in our common heritage, but of the sources of strength 



PREFACE. IX. 

whence our life may be renewed ; if it will in any way change 
controversies from mere wrangling concerning the terminology 
of dogmas to an earnest, serious, modest, chastened inquiry into 
the truth which underlies them ; if it will lead students of The- 
ology to become devoted scholars of the Holy Scriptures, and 
pastors to grow ever more profoundly into the contemplation of 
"the deep things of God," and their application to their people; 
if it will withdraw the attention of men from that which is merely 
outward and temporal, the incidental and changing, to that which 
is inner and eternal, the essential and permanent, its publication 

will not be in vain. 

Henry Eyster Jacobs. 

Lutheran Theological Seminary, 
Philadelphia, July iith, 1905. 



CONTENTS 



I. Sources and Methods I 

II. The Being and Attributes of God 18 

III. The Trinity 42 

IV. Creation 60 

V. Providence 67 

VI. Angels 80 

VII. Man as Created 88 

VIII. Sin 101 

IX. The Grace of God Towards Fallen Men 114 

X. Preparation of Redemption 119 

XL The Person of Christ 122 

XII. The States of Christ 141 

XIII. Christ as Prophet 159 

XIV. Christ as Priest 167 

XV. Christ as King 179 

XVI. The Mission of the Holy Ghost 183 

XVII. Faith in Christ 186 

XVIII. Justification 206 

XIX. The Gospel Call 215 

XX. Illumination 222 

XXI. Regeneration 229 

XXII. Mystical Union 244 

XXIII. Renovation 247 

XXIV. The Word as the Means of Grace 265 

xi. 



Xll. CONTENTS. 

XXV. The Law and the Gospel 298 

XXVI. The Sacraments 311 

XXVII. Holy Baptism 325 

XXVIII. The Holy Supper: . . . . 342 

XXIX. The Church 369 

XXX. The Ministry 419 

XXXI. The Church's Confessions 446 

XXXII. Church Discipline 457 

XXXIII. The Family ....464 

XXXIV. The State 472 

XXXV. Life after Death 485 

XXXVI. The Resurrection of the Body 494 

XXXVII. The Return of Christ 504 

XXXVIII. The General Judgment 517 

XXXIX. Eternal Death 535 

XL. Eternal Life 540 

XLL The Divine Purpose as Interpreted by Its 

Contents and Results 552 

Appendix. The Spiritual Priesthood of Believers, by Dr. 

Philip J. Spener 581 

Analysis 597 

Index I. Of Topics 613 

Index II. Of Persons and Documents 631 



A SUMMARY 

OF THE 

CHRISTIAN FAITH 



CHAPTER I. 

SOURCES AND METHODS. 

i. What is Dogmatic Theology? 
The Science of the Christian Faith. 

2. Why is it a Science? 

Because the Christian Faith, with all its contents is an 
object of knowledge. It differs from other departments 
of knowledge in the nature of the facts, with which it 
has to deal. In common with every other branch of 
learning, its facts are capable of classification and system- 
atic presentation. Facts so treated constitute a science. 

3. Why is this science called "Dogmatics" or "Dog- 
matic Theology" ? 

Because it is the systematic arrangement of definitions 
of doctrine, known as ''Dogmas." It is the science of 
Dogmas. 

4. What is a "dogma"? 

Properly a definition of doctrine made by an ecclesias- 
tical organization. In a wider sense, it refers also to 
statements of principles involved in the consideration of 
the various articles of the Christian Faith. 

5. Is Dogmatic Theology a purely Biblical science? 
No. It deals not only with doctrines taught in Holy 

Scripture, but also with the forms which such doctrines 
have assumed in their treatment by the Church. In this 
it is distinguished from Biblical Theology, which, unlike 
Dogmatic Theology, is restricted to the contents of Holy 
Scripture. 



2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

6. State this distinction more sharply. 

Biblical Theology is the science of the faith taught in 
Holy Scripture. Dogmatic Theology is the science of the 
definitions of the scriptural faith, made by the Church, 
or widely prevalent within the Church. 

7. With what three elements, therefore, has Dogmatic 
Theology to deal? 

(a) In all Protestant Theology, the material of the dog- 
ma comes or professes to come from Holy Scripture. 

(b) The definition of the doctrine has been called forth 
by certain historical circumstances. 

(c) The definition inevitably is framed in technical 
terms, determined by current philosophy. Every dogma 
contains, therefore, a scriptural, an historical, and a phil- 
osophical element. 

8. What, therefore, is the order of the chief branches 
of Theology that are here involved? 

Biblical Theology lays the foundation. The History of 
Dogmas shows the process by which the material has 
been taken from Scripture, and then, after being discussed 
on its various sides, has attained a scientific formulation. 
Dogmatic Theology brings together the results, that are 
shown to have been attained by the History of Dogmas, 
and exhibits their scriptural foundations and their rela- 
tion to each other. 

9. What are the Presuppositions of Dogmatic The- 
ology? 

(a) The existence of God. Dogmatic Theology no 
more undertakes to prove this, than Astronomy under- 
takes to prove the existence of stars, or Logic the reality 
of thought. The arguments usually considered in Natural 
Theology, viz., the Ontological, Cosmological, Teleolog- 
ical, and Moral, have their place, as attempts to analyze 
and express what exists in man's mind prior to all argu- 
ment and even all thought. But God's existence is not 



Chap. I.] SOURCES AND METHODS. 3 

a certainty because of these arguments, any more than a 
man has self-consciousness solely because of metaphys- 
ical processes that seem to him to demonstrate his own 
existence. 

(b) The ability of man to attain to some degree of 
knowledge of God. Limited as the capacity of all finite 
beings is, man's knowledge is neither uncertain nor in- 
definite, within the sphere where God has imparted to 
him the means of knowing. 

(c) The Revelation of God in Christ. The Christian 
Faith assumes the historical reality of Jesus Christ, and 
from this, as a center, derives all knowledge and reaches 
all conclusions. Dogmatic Theology is, therefore, the 
scientific statement of the truths taught by Jesus Christ, 
as received by faith and confessed by believers. It knows 
no revelation supplementary to that given by Christ, and 
estimates the value of preparatory revelations, such as in 
Nature, and in a still higher degree in the Old Testament, 
only as they are recognized and taught by Christ Him- 
self. (Chapter XIII, 5 sqq.) 

(d) The Holy Scriptures as the Inerrant Record of 
Revelation. The New Testament is the inerrant record 
of the revelation of Christ in word and deed, and of the 
truths and principles proceeding, under the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, from that revelation. The Old Testa- 
ment is in like manner an inerrant record, having the. ex- 
press and often repeated testimony and authority of 
Christ, of the preparatory and partial revelations made 
concerning Him before His coming. Heb. 1:1. 

(e) The Reception of this Revelation, and its confes- 
sion by a community of believers. There must be a 
Chu/ch, in order that there may be dogmas. No indi- 
vidual teacher or isolated believer can frame a dogma. 
It is a statement of Scriptural truth embodied in the pub- 
lic confession of a number of those professing faith in 



4 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

Christ's name. "Dogmatics deals not with the indi- 
vidual faith of the dogmatician, but with the common 
faith of the Christian Church to which he belongs, and 
which he confesses as his own by belonging to such 
communion" (Luthardt). 

10. Trace the process whereby the truths recorded in 
Holy Scripture attain scientific statement. 

The Holy Scriptures are more than a text-book of doc- 
trine. Each word of God is a seed of life intended to lodge 
within men's hearts, and therein to grow. By the pres- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, a life-principle is conveyed, 
whereby man is quickened in all his powers and faculties, 
and all his views of truth and duty are transformed. This 
new life inevitably expresses itself in confession. Man 
translates into his own language the thoughts of God, 
and is ready to give free utterance to the relation of this 
new life to the world within and around him. As this 
one life is shared by many whose experience is the same, 
a common confession results, around which the Christian 
community, i. e., the Church, centers. This confession 
may be occasioned by the necessities of the inner life, the 
attacks or misrepresentations of enemies, or the misunder- 
standings of other Christians, calling for an accurate and 
discriminating statement of the faith as it has been re- 
ceived. The formulation of dogmas has been an unavoid- 
able and progressive task of the Church, under the im- 
pulse of its divine life, in order to exclude from its teach- 
ing various errors. Its aim has been to guard the pure 
teaching of God's Word, by giving it a sharper expres- 
sion, so as to leave no room for the protection of errorists 
beneath statements that are found to be ambiguous. 
. Dogmatic Theology deals, therefore, not with the mere 
letter of Scripture, but with the truth of Scripture, as it 
has been assimilated into the life, and as this inner life 
may be known by its external confession. It is the science 



Chap. L] sources and methods. 5 

of the Christian Faith, whether the term faith be taken 
objectively {fides quae creditur) or subjectively (fides 
qua creditur). See Chapter XVII, 4. 

11. Is Christian experience, then, a standard of doc- 
trine? 

Never. While an important element in the interpreta- 
tion of doctrines, in so far as it declares the presence and 
power of the Holy Spirit in applying God's Word, it must 
constantly be tested and adjusted by Holy Scripture. The 
spiritual sense of believing men is not to be depreciated 
(1 Cor. 2: 15, "He that is spiritual judgeth all things"), 
nevertheless it is always to be recognized by its complete 
subjection to Holy Scripture (1 John 4:1,2; Gal. 1:8; 
Acts 17: 11). A true and normal faith is one that holds 
implicitly and exclusively to the revelation of God in 
Christ contained in the Holy Scriptures. It is a faith that 
lives in communion with Christ ; but Christ in the heart 
of the believer, and Christ in His Word are always one 
and the same. 

12. By what term is that habit, or state of mind and 
heart known which results from faith ? 

Religion, or "the communion of man with God." 

13. Is there, then, no religion or religious life where 
there is no faith in Christ? 

The term is used in a wider and a narrower sense. 

In its wider sense, it refers tx> all the aspirations of man 
after God, such as those described by Paul to the Athen- 
ians (Acts 17:22), and, thus, is in a measure universal. 
Man is distinguished from other animals chiefly by the 
religious faculty, or the sense of dependence of God, how- 
ever vague, indefinite or corrupt that conception of God 
may be. 

But in a narrower sense, it refers to the realization of 
these ideas or conceptions, after which man has struggled. 
In the Old Testament, this realization began with the 



6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

promises concerning Christ ; in the New Testament alone, 
do they reach their consummation. 

In its wider sense, it is applied to all foreshadowings of 
the communion of man with God ; as where the existence 
of a Supreme Being and man's obligations to serve Him, 
are acknowledged. In the absolute sense, it is man's 
cheerful recognition and joyful service of a Supreme 
Personality, based upon the consciousness of reconcilia- 
tion and a community of interests with Him. 

14. Is "Religion" confined, then, to the designation of 
an inner spiritual life? 

It is popularly used to designate also the various modes 
or systems which profess to lead man to communion with 
God. The communion of man with God is Religion sub- 
jectively so called. The statement of the principles under- 
lying this communion is Religion objectively so called. 
In this sense, we speak of the Christian Religion, in which 
alone, religion in the subjective sense is fully attained; as 
well as the Jewish Religion, as, prior to Christ, Christian- 
ity in the germ, and the Zoroastrian, Confucian, Brahman, 
Buddhist and Mohammedan religions, which contain a 
common truth in their recognition in greater or less de- 
gree of a Higher Power, and man's helplessness by na- 
ture, but which distort and corrupt this truth (Rom. 
1 : 20-23 ) • 

Christianity, therefore, is not, properly speaking, merely 
one religion, and that the best, out of many; that is, a 
species, co-ordinate with Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, 
etc., within the same genus; but the one, absolute and 
pure religion. The other religions show the various ways 
in which men seek after God. Christianity alone shows 
the way in which God is found. 

15. Upon what does this claim of Christianity as the 
Absolute Religion rest? 

Upon the, fact that it is a supernatural divine revelation. 



Chap. I.] SOURCES AND METHODS. 7 

The communion of man with God is possible only by 
God's revelation of Himself to man. 

16. But has not God revealed Himself to all men? 

Yes, as Creator, Lawgiver and Judge; but not as Re- 
deemer, or loving Father in Heaven. (Ps. 8 : I, 3 ; 19: 1 ; 
Acts 17:26,27; Rom. 1:20; 2:15.) 

This universal revelation is known, as the Natural 
Revelation of God, or revelation according to the Order of 
Creation. 

17. By what is the imperfection of this Natural 
Knowledge to be explained ? 

It has become inadequate because of the enfeeblement 
and corruption of man's powers by sin (Rom. 7: 10-12; 
Rom. 1:21; 1 Cor. 2:14; Eph. 5:8; Matt. 11:27; J onn 
1:5). It is adapted to a condition of man's nature that 
no longer exists. The Natural Revelation is like writing 
that needs the intervention of a lens in order to be legible 
by one whose sight is failing. Some facts indeed are 
known, but they are misapprehended and viewed in wrong 
relations ; and the most important are entirely wanting. 

18. Of what are the truths contained in the Natural 
Revelation the foundation? 

Of the various natural religions. None of them could 
have obtained its hold upon men and retained it for 
ages, if beneath their gross corruptions there had not 
been elements of truth. But even these few truths are 
diversely apprehended and constantly modified and mis- 
conceived. Thus the first chapter of Romans shows the 
process of religious deterioration, whereby the conception 
of God is brought down to the standard of that of cor- 
ruptible man, and is at last lost in the multiplicity of his 
manifestations and works, so that "the truth of God is 
changed into a lie" (Rom. 1:21-25). 

19. Is the Natural Revelation then useless? 

By no means. It alone keeps man from becoming like 



8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

the brutes which perish. It constantly reminds him of a 
higher standard than is attainable under the mere light 
of Nature. It renders all the prescriptions of merely 
natural religions unsatisfactory. It cannot answer the 
inquiries of the heart for certainty, but it impels man 
ever onward in his search for truth and for God. It pre- 
pares the way for the supernatural revelation of God in 
Christ, bv its unwearied assertion of claims which man 
cannot meet in himself or by the aid of any other religions. 

20. Was there no supernatural revelation before 
Christ? 

Supernatural, as distinguished from "Natural Revela- 
tion," or "Revelation according to the Order of Redemp- 
tion," as distinguished from "Revelation according to the 
Order of Creation," began immediately after man's fall. 
Before Christ, it consisted of a series of preparatory and 
partial revelations in word, deed and history. These were 
fragmentary and largely figurative, as distinguished from 
the one, full and complete revelation in Jesus Christ. 
"God who in many parts and in many ways spake of old 
to the fathers through the prophets, spake, at the extrem- 
ity of these days unto us through his Son" (Heb. 1 : 1, 2). 
The chief distinguishing characteristic of the earlier rev- 
elation, therefore, was its "many parts." It could be un- 
derstood only when taken as a whole, and with the end 
clearly in view upon which all these parts centered. 

21. What records were made of these earlier revela- 
tions? 

The canonical books of the Old Testament are an iner- 
rant record of all these preparatory and partial revela- 
tions concerning Christ (John 5 : 39 ; Acts 17 : 11). They 
are to be constantly read and judged in the light and ac- 
cording to the standard of the New Testament. The New 
Testament is not to be interpreted by the Old, but the Old 
is to be interpreted by the New. While historically the 



Chap. L] sources and methods. 9 

New Testament rests upon the foundations of the Old, 
and the appeal was constantly made to devout Jews in our 
Lord's time to accept Jesus as the Christ, because of the 
Old Testament testimony, with Christians the process is 
reversed, and with the ampler and plainer and complete 
testimony of Christ, as recorded in the Xew Testament in 
their hands, they accept the Old because attested by the 
New, and explain its types and shadows and promises 
and isolated statements, entirely with reference to the end 
towards which by Divine inspiration they were guided, 
and of which the New Testament clearly teaches. 

22. What principle is to be observed in the determina- 
tion of the meaning of the New Testament? 

That of the organic relation of the various parts of 
Holy Scripture to one another. 

23. What does this imply? 

Not only that each passage must be interpreted in the 
light of the context in which it stands, but that the central 
and fixed point for the treatment of each doctrine is to be 
found in those parts of Holy Scripture which explicitly 
and fully discuss it. To such passages, termed by theo- 
logians the sedes doctrinac, or seat of the doctrine, all in- 
cidental allusions in other texts are to be subordinated. 

24. Illustrate this? 

In considering the doctrines concerning sin. grace, jus- 
tification, the Epistle to the Romans is the starting-point, 
with its extended and minute arguments. In the same 
way, the Relation of Law and Gospel, is to be learned 
from the Epistle to the Romans, the Relation of the New 
Testament to the Old from the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
and the doctrine of the Humiliation and Exaltation of 
Christ from the Epistle to the Philippians. When the 
meaning of these passages has been gathered, they form 
the guide to the interpretation of all other parts of Scrip- 



10 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

ture. Obscuriora et pandora explicanda sunt ex clariori- 
bus ac plunbus. 

25. Upon what is this prindple based? 

Upon the fact that there is no article of faith, i. e., no 
doctrine, knowledge of which is necessary for salvation, 
that is not set forth somewhere in Holy Scripture in clear 
and express terms, and that such clear and express state- 
ments then become the rule and standard according to 
which those which are less clear are to be decided. 

26. What term has been applied to this principle? 
The doctrine of the "Analogy of the Faith." It is that 

of the self-consistency or harmony of Scripture, an in- 
evitable deduction from its inerrancy and inspiration. 

2J. What further caution is needed in the study of 
the Holy Scriptures? 

As the records of a supernatural revelation, even when 
their language is clearest, truths and facts are declared 
beyond man's power to explain. 

28. Are Reason and Revelation, therefore, antag- 
onistic? 

Not in reality, for as a standard of truth, Reason has 
normatively to do only with what pertains to the sphere 
of the Natural, while Revelation has to do with what per- 
tains to the sphere of the Supernatural. They can be no 
more really opposed to each other than a truth of Geom- 
etry can be opposed to one of Chemistry or Music. Rules 
deduced, therefore, from the observation of physical phe- 
nomena, can never be made the standard according to 
which to judge supernatural truths. 

29. What, then, is the first requisite for apprehending 
the meaning of Holy Scripture? 

Faith, or that state of mind which takes God at His 
word, even when it cannot explain difficulties inherent in 
the language of Scripture. 



Chap. I.] SOURCES AND METHODS. II 

30. Has Reason, therefore, no office with respect to 
articles of faith? 

Yes, when it is kept in subordination to faith. Start- 
ing with the assumption, that it cannot explain the mys- 
teries of the supernatural from the standpoint of the nat- 
ural world, sanctified reason becomes an important instru- 
ment for comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and, 
by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, reaching conclusions. 
This has been distinguished by theologians as "the instru- 
mental use of Reason," as contrasted with "the normative 
use" with regard to matters of faith. 

31. How, then, is the proper relation between Faith 
and Reason maintained? 

Only by the illuminating presence and activity of the 
Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2: 14, 15). 

32. How is the so-called conflict between Science and 
Revelation to be explained? 

By the unscientific methods of those claiming to be 
representatives of science. To force the rules pertaining 
to one branch of knowledge into an entirely diverse de- 
partment is unscientific. The fallacy has been illustrated 
by the Stoic philosopher, Epictetus : "When you want to 
write to a friend, Grammar will tell you what words you 
should write, but whether you should write or not, Gram- 
mar will not tell you. Music will inform you concerning 
sounds, but whether you should sing just now or play on 
the lute, Music will not tell." The consequence of this 
error, is the disregard, to greater or less degree, of faith 
as a factor in the apprehension of all religious truth. 

"So ignorant, blind and perverted is man's reason or 
natural understanding, that when even the most able and 
learned men on earth read or hear the Gospel of the Son 
of God, and the promise of eternal salvation, they cannot 
from their own powers, perceive, apprehend, understand 
or believe and regard it true, but the more diligence and 



12 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

earnestness they employ, in order to comprehend with 
their reason these spiritual things, the less they understand 
and believe, and before they become enlightened or taught 
of the Holy Ghost, they regard all this as only foolish- 
ness or fictions" (Formula of Concord, 553:9). 

33. Has the Church no authority to determine zvhat 
are Articles of Faith? 

The Church is only a witness; never a judge of what 
is truth. It cannot lay down a single article which Scrip- 
ture has not previously taught. Neither can it disannul 
or modify what Scripture has determined. 

34. Are the Church's declarations concerning Holy 
Scripture, the testimony of the Fathers, and the opinions 
of later theologians to be disregarded? 

By no means. Scripture itself exhorts : ''Despise not 
prophesyings" (1 Thess. 5:20). The gifts of God in 
our fellowmen are bestowed for the edification of the 
Church, and as such are to be reverently acknowledged 
and used. Every testimony for the faith is to be prized. 
Every declaration that is the result of the Holy Spirit's 
work in applying Holy Scripture to the minds and lives 
of men, is to be considered. "Although faith depends not 
on human authority, but on the Word of God, neverthe- 
less as Scripture wants the weak to be strengthened by 
those who are stronger, it is of advantage, in every kind 
of temptations, to have Church testimonies. For as we 
desire to consult living men who have had experience in 
spiritual affairs, so also those of old whose writings are 
approved" (Gerhard). 

35. Repeat the confessional statements of the Luth- 
eran Church on the relation of Holy Scripture to these 
testimonies. 

(a) "We believe, teach and confess that the only rule 
and standard, according to which at once all dogmas 
and teachers should be esteemed and judged, are 



Chap. L] sources and methods. 13 

nothing else than the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures 
of the Old and of the Xew Testament as it is written. Ps. 
119: 105. 'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light 
unto my path' : and Gal. 1:8. "Though an angel from 
heaven preach any other gospel unto you let him be ac- 
cursed.' 

"Other writings of ancient or modern teachers, what- 
ever reputation they may have, should not be regarded as 
of equal authority with the Holy Scriptures, but should 
altogether be subordinated to them, and should not be 
received other or further, then as witnesses as to in what 
manner and at what places, since the time of the apostles, 
the doctrine of the prophets was preserved." 

(b) 'The Holy Scriptures alone remain the only judgr. 
rule and standard, according to which as the only touch- 
stone, all dogmas should and must be discerned and 
judged, as to whether they be good or evil, right or wrong. 

'The other svmbols and writings are not iud^es as are 
the Holy Scriptures, but only a witness and declaration 
of the faith, as to how at any time the Holy Scripture s 
have been understood and explained in articles in contro- 
versy in the Church of Christ, by those who then lived, 
and how the opposite dogma was rejected and con- 
demned" 1 Formula of Concord. "Introduction." 491 sq.). 

36. But are the Holy Scriptures sufficiently clea and 
complete to dispense with supplementary revelations and 

the testimony of tradition as co-ordinate authorities? 

They are called "a lamp and a light." "a light that 
shineth in a dark place." and men are recalled from all 
professions of special revelations to their sure test. (Is. 
8:20). While there is much in Scripture that is obscure 
and is intended throughout all ages to exercise the faith 
of believers, it is sufficiently clear and complete to bring 
salvation to the humbles:. "It is able to make wise unto 
salvation" (2 Tim. 3: 15), and makes the man of God 



14 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I, 

"thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 
3 : 17). It was because of the insecurity of the testimony 
afforded by tradition that the Holy Scriptures were writ- 
ten ( Luke 1:3,4; Phil. 3:1). 

37. Is it proper to attach authority to the English, 
German or Latin Scriptures? 

In giving the Holy Scriptures by divine inspiration, 
God used human language simply as a medium to convey 
divine thoughts and the statement of divine facts. There 
was such divine guidance and control of the inspired 
writers that the result was as perfect a statement of what 
God meant to communicate as was possible in human 
words. These words, however, were entirely subordinate 
to the thought not only of each particular sentence, but 
of each particular book, and of Scripture as a whole. As 
the Word of God, however, was for people of all lan- 
guages, these thoughts are translatable into other tongues. 
It is the same divine, life-giving truth, whether it be stated 
in English or German, Greek or Hebrew. As, however, 
the original writers were inspired, while the translators 
were not, the translations are subject to constant revision 
according to the original language and text in which each 
book was written. As there are no two words of the 
same language that are precise equivalents, so a word 
loses some associations and shades of meaning and gains 
others by translation. Where a controversy or the de- 
cision of critical points turns upon a single word or sen- 
tence, a reference to the original will be needed in order 
to fully assure one of its meaning. But as to the general 
tenor and argument of Holy Scripture, there are very 
few who do not gain it, and that most properly, entirely 
from translations. The material remains the same, even 
though the form is changed. 

38. Should we not attach ultimate authority only to 
the original autographs? 



Chap. L] sources and methods. 15 

These autographs have probably long since perished. 
We know of no direct transcript from them. But while 
the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament show over 
150,000 variations in the text, there are very few that 
make any important change in sense, and of these not one 
which in any affects or modifies any article of the Chris- 
tian Faith. 

39. Which is the more important aid to the knowledge 
of Scripture, acquaintance with the original languages, or 
Ch ristia n cxp erie n ce? 

Undoubtedly the latter, first in one's own life, and then 
in the lives of others ; but to be a competent and well-fur- 
nished teacher of the Christian religion, such as every pas- 
tor is called to be, one should have both. No one can 
understand the Psalms of David unless he has passed 
through spiritual struggles such as David experienced. 
No one can appreciate the Epistles of Paul, unless, with 
Paul, he knows the bitterness of sin, and the need of 
grace, and, like the Apostle, has failed in his efforts to be 
justified by the Law. It was the greater depth of Augus- 
tine's religious experience that made him the best inter- 
preter of Paul in the Ancient Church, notwithstanding 
his limited knowledge of the original languages of both 
Old and New Testament. It was the thought of Holy 
Scripture as expressed in the Latin translation that guided 
Luther's religious experience through its critical stages. 
His knowledge of Greek was very limited until after the 
Reformation had begun, and he had the assistance of 
Melanchthon. His knowledge of Hebrew was not inde- 
pendent of specialists, whom he called in as advisers in 
his translation of the Old Testament. Augustine was a 
greater theologian than Origen or Jerome ; Luther than 
Reuchlin or Erasmus, or even Melanchthon. 

40. What rule has Luther formulated on this subject? 
Haec tria theologum faciunt: O ratio, Meditaiio, Temp- 



l6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. I. 

tatio. "These three things make a theologian : Prayer, 
Meditation, Trial." 

(a) Prayer refers not simply to an act, but to the spirit 
or temper in which all study should be begun, continued 
and ended. I Thess. 5 : 17, "Pray without ceasing." It 
implies the constant sense of dependence upon the illumin- 
ating agency of the Holy Spirit, and the subjection of in- 
tellect and will to that of God. It means the laying aside 
of all prejudice, party spirit, and arbitrary judgments, the 
absence of all pride of opinion or learning, and the search 
for knowledge only to the end that God may thereby be 
glorified. 

(b) Meditation refers to the contemplative habit with 
respect to the truths of revelation recorded in Holy Scrip- 
ture. This finds its material first of all in the Scriptures 
themselves. They are to be read reverently, attentively, 
accurately, constantly, obediently, and with more regard 
to practical than to theoretical ends. Attention is to be 
given to their scope and purpose, rather than to their de- 
tails ; to their arguments, than to detached statements. 
An excessive occupation with details, is as if a surveyor 
who is commissioned to map out a district of country, for- 
gets himself in the close examination of the leaves of a 
forest, or of the chemical constituents of the soil, and re- 
turns without having accomplished his task. The minut- 
est details are important when judged in their relation to 
the whole. But the bearing of Scripture as a whole, and 
of each book, and each section of each book upon 
the whole must be appreciated, in order that each 
verse and each word be understood aright. Medi- 
tation is occupied not simply with the words and text 
and arguments of Scripture, but also with the facts 
and truths comprised in its study as a whole, and in their 
application in the lives of the Church and of individuals. 
We are not only to begin with Holy Scripture, and to go 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. IJ 

forth from this center to the application of its doctrines 
to human life, but all the occurrences of our daily lives 
should be interpreted in the light of Scripture. The his- 
tory of the world is a treasury of material from which 
ever fresh illustrations of Scriptural doctrines may be 
drawn. While special hours and seasons are favorable 
for special exercises of this kind, the meditation here 
meant is constant. It is not confined to devotional hours, 
or to any particular efforts, but is inseparable from all. 
mental activity of the true theologian (Ps. 1:2). 

(c) Trial or Practice. For theology is directed to a 
practical end. The revelation of God in Christ has been 
made in order to re-establish the communion of God with 
man. Only he in whom this end of revelation has been 
reached, and who realizes it in his own experience, actu- 
ally knows what it is (John 7: 17; Rev. 2: 17). Such 
trial or practice is continuous and progressive. Man's 
knowledge of God in Christ is deepened and extended by 
the fruits of particular words and promises of God in his 
individual life, and by his close observation of similar re- 
sults in the lives of others. What is otherwise general, is 
thus made special and individual. What is otherwise ab- 
stract, is thus made concrete. What is otherwise distant 
is brought home to the heart and deeply impressed there. 
It is in conflict with the trials and temptations of life, that 
God's grace is magnified (2 Cor. 12:9). It is in the 
school of affliction that the riches of God's revelation are 
more fully prized. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 

I. What definition of Religion has been already given? 

We have said that it is "man's cheerful recognition and 
joyful service of a Supreme Personality, based on the 
consciousness of reconciliation and a community of inter- 
est with Him" (Chapter I, Question 13). 



l8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

2. What kind of relation does this imply? 

A personal relation, an attitude or disposition of one 
person to another. It is not the mere acceptance of a cer- 
tain number of principles, as when one learns a system of 
philosophy or commits to memory a list of axioms. Nor 
is it the experience of a particular class of emotions or 
delight in peculiar forms of sentiment. Nor is it the rec- 
ognition of a certain number of rules of conduct, as oblig- 
atory. Religion -has its intellectual, its emotional, and its 
ethical sides, because they are all involved in the personal 
relation, in which the very essence of religion consists. 

3. What does a personal relation involve? 

A certain identity or likeness between the objects which 
it comprehends, viz., personality. God is a person. Man 
is a person. Religion is a relation of man to God. 

4. What is meant by "a person"? 

Whatever can say "I." It expresses itself in self-con- 
sciousness and self-determination, or freedom. (See 
Chapter III, 38-40.) 

5. What, therefore, is essential to the very conception 
of religion? 

Not merely reliance on some "great unknown," but a 
vivid conception of man's affinity with God, as the basis 
of all his relations to Him. As man was created in God's 
image, it is impossible to think of God except by begin- 
ning with what is implied in this image, and rising from 
this common basis to that in which God must be distin- 
guished from man. As God has theomorphized man, 
man, within certain limits, cannot do otherwise than an- 
thropomorphize God. Holy Scripture both follows this 
mode of presentation, and guards against its abuse. 

6. Against what errors is the conception of God as a 
personality arrayed? 

Against Pantheism which teaches that God is the uni- 
versal substance, and that man, as well as the universe is 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 19 

only one form of His manifestation, a mere phenomenon 
of God. Against all systems which would represent God 
as the mere force or thought of the universe. Against 
Polytheism which, on the one hand, by multiplying gods, 
denies a Supreme Being, and, on the other, abuses the 
anthropomorphic process by investing God with the limi- 
tations and infirmities of men, and even of lower creatures 
(Rom. 1:23). Against Agnosticism which denies the 
possibility of any knowledge of God, and Atheism which 
absolutely denies his existence. 

7. But is not the conception of God as a person in con- 
flict with the Christian doctrine of the Three Persons in 
one Essence or Being? 

No. For Natural Revelation knows nothing of the Son 
or Holy Spirit, and even the Father it does not know as 
"father" ; but, nevertheless, all the teachings of natural 
religion point to God as person. Nor does the ampler 
and purer revelation made of God in Christ in any way 
disprove this. Religion is the communion of man with 
God the Father apprehended and reconciled through the 
Son ; with the Son as Redeemer and Revealer of the 
Father's will ; and with the Holy Ghost, as Teacher, Gov- 
ernor and Comforter. What natural religion gropes after 
as one Person, supernatural revelation declares to be not 
one Person, but Three Persons in one Being. 

8. Can God be defined? 

The answer depends upon what is meant by "a defini- 
tion. " If "a definition" be full and complete, it would be 
equivalent to circumscribing God, which is impossible. 
In this sense, to define is to trace limits or boundaries, 
which would conflict with God's infinitude. But if it be 
the condensation into a few words, of what Holy Scrip- 
ture declares to be His essential and distinguishing prop- 
erties or attributes, this can be done. 

9. What definitions then can be given? 



20 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

"God is an infinite spiritual substance." Here "sub- 
stance" denotes the widest class or genus, while "spiritual" 
distinguishes this from "material" substances. The word 
"infinite" indicates the specific difference distinguishing 
God from other "spiritual substances." Angels are "finite 
spiritual substances." Nevertheless such definition is in- 
adequate, as there is a form of Pantheism which would 
accept it. The term "intelligent" if inserted would par- 
tially guard against such misconception. So God may be 
defined as "an absolute substance," distinguishing Him 
from all substances that are dependent on Him. 

Or enumerating the distinguishing qualities, relations 
and works of God, we have the definition of the Augs- 
burg Confession : 

"One divine essence, eternal, without body, without 
parts, of infinite power, wisdom and goodness ; the Maker 
and Preserver of all things, visible and invisible." 

10. Can such definition be further expanded? 

Yes, as by Melanchthon, in his Loci Communes, which 
Chemnitz has admirably analyzed and grouped under 
four heads : 

(a) A clause referring to essential attributes : "God is a 
spiritual essence, intelligent, eternal, true, good, just, holy, 
chaste, merciful, most free, of immense wisdom and 
power, different from the bodies of the world, and all 
creatures." 

(b) A clause referring to the relations or properties and 
notions of persons : "One in substance and nevertheless 
three in persons, the Father Eternal, who, from eternity, 
has begotten from His own essence, the Son, His image ; 
the Son, the coeternal image of the Father, begotten of 
the Father from eternity ; and the Holy Ghost, proceeding 
from eternity from Father and Son." 

(c) A clause referring to the will of God, as manifested 
in a universal action : "And that this Eternal Father, with 



Chap. -I.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 21 

His coeternal Son and the Holy Ghost, coeternal with the 
Father and the Son, has created and preserves heaven and 
earth, things visible and invisible, and all creatures." 

(d) A clause referring to the will of God, as manifested 
in a special action, viz., in favors towards the Church : 
"And that this eternal, only one and true God, within the 
human race, which He created according to His image 
and for certain obedience, has chosen through this Son a 
Church that it may be holy and blameless before Him, on 
account of, through and in the Son, whom He has ap- 
pointed Head of the Church, His body ; and that the Son 
has sent from the Father and Himself, the Holy Ghost, as 
the Ouickener and Sanctifier of the Church." 

Such a description of God is a brief summary of all 
Theology. 

ii. Is this latter mode of definition widely adopted? 

Yes. An example is found in the Westminster Large 
Catechism : 

"God is a Spirit, in and of Himself infinite in being, 
glory, blessedness and perfection ; all-sufficient, eternal, 
unchangeable, incomprehensible, every where present, al- 
mighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most 
just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth." 

12. Why is "the Name of God" so frequently men- 
tioned in Holy Scripture? 

Because no one can apprehend God in His essence or 
as He is. 

John 1:18 — "No one hath seen God at any time." 

Ex. 33:20 — "There shall no man see me and live." 

1 Tim. 6:16 — "Dwelling in ligat, which no man can approacn unto; whom 
no man hath seen, nor can see." 

Deut. 4:12 — "Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; 
only ye heard a voice." 

13. What then is the Name of God? 

All that God wants us to know concerning Himself in 



22 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

this life. It is the sum and substance of God's revelation 
to man of what God is. 

14. Explain Scripture passages in which the term 
occurs. 

When the Psalmist sings (Ps. 8: 1), "How excellent is 
thy name in all the earth," he celebrates the glory of the 
revelation of Himself which God has made. When he 
declares, "They that know thy name, shall put their trust 
in thee," he means, "they who have learned to know Thee 
as Thou hast condescended to reveal Thyself." "To re- 
member and to praise God's Name" is to take to heart and 
proclaim what God has made known. The Name of God 
is hallowed "when the Word of God is taught in its truth 
and purity, and we, as children of God, lead holy lives, in 
accordance with it." 

15. Distinguish between (( the Name'' and "the Names" 
of God? 

"The Name" stands for God's entire revelation up to 
the^ time in which the word is used. "The Names" are 
particular designations, expressing either His being, or 
some prominent attribute, relation or work of God. 

16. Hozv are they classified? 

As (a) Essential, such as Jehovah, Jah, Adonai, Elohim, 
El, in the Old, and Theos in the New Testament. Their 
etymology is obscure, although often stated with a great 
degree of confidence. Jehovah, the incommunicable name 
of the Old Testament, is widely, although not with cer- 
tainty, ascribed to the Hebrew verb meaning "to be," and 
interpreted according to Ex. 3 : 14, as "he who is what he 
is," implying the independence, freedom, immutability, 
eternity and faithfulness of God, as contrasted with the 
dependence and mutability of creatures. 

(b) Attributive, as when God is designated by one of 
His attributes, as "The Almighty" (particularly frequent 
in Job). 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 23 

(c) Relative, expressing" certain relations, as "King of 
kings," "Lord of lords," the Creator," "Preserver," "the 
Searcher of hearts," etc. 

17. What are the attributes of God? 

The various forms or modes in which the divine essence 
is expressed, or the various ways in which the one and 
simple divine Being has revealed Himself as subsisting. 

18. Are they then accidental? 
There are no accidents in God. 

19. Are they factors into which the essence of God 
has been resolved ? 

This would conflict with the simplicity or impartibility 
of God. 

20. What then are they? 

Qualities inseparable from God's being. 

21. By what threefold method is the idea of the Divine 
Attributes gained? 

By Causality, Eminence and Negation. 

22. State this more fully. 

(a) By way of causality, we reason from the effect to 
its source. All the perfections required for what He has 
'done and is doing are ascribed to God. 

(b) By way of eminence, we ascribe to God in the high- 
est degree all the perfections we see in creatures. 

(c) By way of negation, we deny to God the limitations 
and defects inherent in creatures. 

23. How may the Divine Attributes be classified? 
Into Absolute or Immanent, and Relative or Transient. 

24. Define them. 

Absolute or Immanent Attributes pertain to God as 
He is in Himself. They cannot in any form or measure, 
be ascribed to creatures, and, therefore, are absolutely in- 
communicable. 

Relative attributes imply a relation of God to a created 



24 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

world. They are by analogy communicable, because they 
have their counterpart in creatures. 

The former are sometimes called Negative, because 
they deny the imperfections found in creatures, and the 
latter Positive, because they affirm the existence in the 
highest degree of the excellent qualities found in crea- 
tures in a lower degree. 

25. Enumerate the Absolute Attributes. 
Independence, Simplicity, Infinity and Immutability. 

26. What is meant by Independence? 

That God depends upon no cause outside of Himself, 
but that He is of Himself, and all-sufficient. This attri- 
bute is sometimes called "Aseity" (from Latin, a from, 
and se, himself). 

Is. 43:10, 11 — "I am he. Before me, there was no God formed, neither 
shall there be after me. I, even I, am Jehovah." 

Ex. 3:14 — "And God said unto Moses: 1 am that i am." Marginal 
Reading: "1 am, because i am." 

27. What is meant by Simplicity ? 

That God is without all composition, and cannot be re- 
solved into parts. Whatever is in God, is God. There are 
no accidents. Neither can the attributes be regarded as 
other than the Essence of God, but only as the one essence 
variously expressed, or regarded. To regard the essence 
of God as the sum of the attributes, or to resolve the es- 
sence into the various attributes, would conflict with the 
simplicity of God. Simplicity includes spirituality (John 
4 : 24) invisibility and incomprehensibility ; since to see 
and comprehend an object, in this life, we must be able to 
consider it in its elements, part by part. 

28. What is meant by Infinity f 

That all of God's perfections are without end or limit. 

Ps. 145:3 — "His greatness is unsearchable." Job 11:7, 8 — "Canst thou 
by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfec- 
tion? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? Deeper than Sheol, 
what canst thou know?" 

Infinity is not so much a separate attribute, as a charac- 
teristic of all the divine attributes. 



Chap. II. ] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 25 

29. What is Infinity, when regarded with respect to 
temporal relations? 

Eternity, i. e., God's absolute transcendence of time. 

Ps. 90:1, 2 — "Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God." 
1 Tim. 1:17 — "Now unto the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only 
God, be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen." 

30. What is implied by Eternity? 

Not only that God is without beginning and end, but 
also without succession, or differences of time. The at- 
tribute of simplicity shows that nothing of God's life 
passes away with time, but that, at every moment, He 
possesses whatever we have throughout our lives succes- 
sively. What we have in parts, God has as a whole. To 
Him, past, present and future are one Now. Nothing 
can be past or future in One, whose life continues the 
same and unchanged. Possessio vitae tota simul. 

31. What is Infinity, when regarded with respect to 
spatial relations? 

Immensity, i. e., God's absolute transcendence of space. 
He can be neither measured nor enclosed by it. 

Jer. 23:24 — "Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Jehovah." 
1 Kings 8:27 — "Behold heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain 
thee." 

32. What is the positive side of Immensity? 
Omnipresence. 

33. In how many ways is God omnipresent? 
In three: (a) By His power. 

Acts 17:28 — "In him we live and move and have our being." 

(b) By His knowledge. 

Heb. 4:13 — "All things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him 
with whom we have to do." 

(c) By His essence. 

"Ps. 139:7-10 — "Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up 
into heaven thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art 
there; if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts 
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 
hold me." 

34. Which of these is Omnipresence in the proper 
sense? 



26 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

Only the last. God's presence is more than that of the 
sun, which penetrates all things with its rays, while it is 
far remote, or that of one whose influence works long 
after he has died. 

35. But is not God described in Holy Scripture as 
coming and going ? 

This does not imply any real absence of His essence, 
but refers only to different modes of presence. God is 
said to be present in a peculiar way, when He manifests 
His presence by certain works, especially when He con- 
fers and increases spiritual gifts, or otherwise makes 
known His providential care of the regenerate ; or when 
by signal judgments He declares His wrath against the 
ungodly. 

Ex. 20:24 — "In every place, where I record my name, I will come unto 
thee, and I will bless thee." 

John 14:23 — "If a man love me, he will keep my word; and my Father 
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." 

Is. 66:15 — "For behold Jehovah will come with fire, and his chariots 
shall be like the whirlwind, to render his anger with fierceness, and his 
rebuke with flames of fire." 

The omnipresence of God considered relatively or with 
respect to creatures, is God's efficacious energy exercised 
in connection with His immensity. This energy admits of 
different degrees. But the relation of the substance of 
God to the substance of the creature is not nearer at one 
time, and more remote at another. 

36. How is this distinction designated? 

We distinguish between the essential and the operative 
omnipresence. Abelard, the Socinians and Deists have 
denied the former, and taught that God is in heaven as to 
His essence, and is on earth only potentially. 

37. But does not the omnipresence of God conflict 
with His simplicity? 

By no means. He is not present by extension or ex- 
pansion, as a cloud may cover a valley or a province, with 
part shadowing part ; but all God is everywhere. Nothing 



Chap. II. ] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 2/ 

can be so small within which God is not ; nothing so vast 
that He does not circumscribe. 

38. What different modes of presence are there? 
First, that of a body in space, where each atom of the 

object corresponds to a point within a conceived area. 
This is known as Circumscriptive or Local Presence. 

Secondly, that of a finite spirit, within space. As spirit 
or soul is simple, and not resolvable into parts, its presence 
at a place is not to be estimated according to spatial rela- 
tions. This is known as Definitive Presence. 

Thirdly, that of God, or the Infinite Spirit, like finite 
spirit in simplicity, but unlike all other spirit, in trans- 
cending every limitation. This is known as Repletive 
Presence. The omnipresence of God is repletive. "Totus 
in rebus omnibus, totus in singulis, totus in se." 

39. What is the Immutability of God? 

That attribute according to which He is subject to no 
change or variation, whether of essence, or of accident, of 
attribute or of purpose. There is no conversion into an- 
other essence, no passion or corruption, no decrease or 
increase, no alteration or local mutation. 

Rom. 1 -.23 — "The glory of the incorruptible God." 

1 Tim. 1:17 — "The King eternal, immortal, invisible. 

James 1:17 — "The Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor 
shadow that is cast by turning." 

Num. 23:19 — "God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of 
man that he should repent: Hath he said and will he not do it? Hath he 
spoken, and will he not make it good?" 

Mai. 3:6 — "I, Jehovah, change not." 

Ps. 102:26, 27 — "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of 
them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, 
and they shall be changed; but thou art the same." 

40. But did not Creation imply or produce a change 
in God? 

No. For from all eternity, it was His will to create the 
world. There was no change in God. The change was in 
the creature. What before was not then came into being. 

41. Did not Incarnation imply or produce a change? 



28 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

In like manner, this was what God had willed from all 
eternity. The Word became flesh, not by the change of 
divinity into humanity, but by the assumption of flesh by 
the person of the Word. 

42. Is not God sometimes described as repenting? 
This expression is used to declare not a change in God, 

but in a relation caused by a change in man. When a ship 
changes its course, the needle of its compass continues to 
point north, but, in order to do so, it necessarily assumes 
a different angle when regarded from the line of the ship's 
motion. The change is not in God's purpose, but in the 
event; not in His will, but in the object willed; not in 
God's disposition, but in the external work and result, 
where He has left a certain amount of free agency to man, 
or to other second causes. These second causes remain- 
ing unchanged, God is unchanged. The second causes 
varying, God's immutability requires what may seem to 
be externally, but in reality is not, a change. 

43. How about unfulfilled promises and conditions? 
They are not absolute, but adjusted to conditions which 

man has not met. 

Jer. 18:7-10 — "At what instant 1 shall speak concerning a nation and 
concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it; 
if that nation concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will 
repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant 
I, shall speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build up 
and to plant it; if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they obey 
not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith 1 said that I would 
benefit them." 

44. What distinction must be observed touching all 
such conditions? 

That it is one thing for God to change His will, and 
quite another for Him to will the change of anything. 
When He willed to change the Old Covenant for the New, 
and to abrogate Levitical rites and ceremonies, it was a 
change which He had determined and decreed from eter- 
nity, and instead of being a change of will, was the exe- 
cution of that will and purpose. 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 29 

45. What are the Relative Attributes? 
Perfections of Life, Intellect and Will, in God existing 

in an infinite, and communicable to creatures in finite 
measure. 

46. What is the Life of God? 

The inner energy of His being, ever active within God, 
and imparting movement and efficacy to created things. 
Life as an inner principle is declared by 

John 5:26 — "As the Father hath life in himself, even so gave he to the. 
Son also to have life in himself." 

Jer. 10:10 — "He is the living God, and an everlasting king." 
1 Tim. 6:16 — "Who only hath immortality." 
Ps. 42:2; 84:2 — "For the living God." 

Life as imparted to others: 

Acts 14:15-17 — "That ye should turn from these vain things unto a living 
God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that in them 
is" (i. e., Life in Nature), "who in the generations gone by suffered all 
the nations to walk in their own ways" (i. e., Life in History), "and yet 
he left not himself without witness in that he did good, and gave you 
from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and 
gladness" (Life in Providence). 

Acts 17:28 — "In him, we live and move and have our being." 

47. What Attributes are ascribed to the Divine In- 
tellect? 

Knowledge and Wisdom. Since they are infinite the 
former is generally known as Omniscience, while the 
latter is expressed in the term "the All-wise God." 

48. What is Omniscience? 

That, by which God by a simple act knows Himself, and 
all things outside of Himself, whether present, past, fu- 
ture or possible. 

Matt. 11:21 — "If the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon 
which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth 
and ashes." Cf. 1 Sam. 23:12. 

Ps. 139:1, 2, 3 — "Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest 
my downsitting and my uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. 
Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with 
all my ways." 

Ps. 15:3 — "The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, keeping watch upon 
the evil and the good." 

49. What is meant by "a simple act" ? 

As there is no succession of thought or act in God, His 



30 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

knowledge is not derived by any process of reasoning, or 
discursive methods, as from effects to causes, or from par- 
ticulars to generals. All the attributes of His being be- 
long to His Omniscience. "It is an absolute, simple, eter- 
nal, infinite, simultaneous, unchangeable and perfect in- 
tuition" (Heppe). 

Is. 40:13 — "Who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah, or being his 
counsellor, hath taught him." Cf. Rom. 11:34. 

50. What difference is there between God's knowledge 
of Himself and His knowledge of all beyond and besides? 

The former is natural and necessary, and could not 
have been otherwise ; the latter is free, and dependent 
upon the determination of His will either causatively or 
permissively. 

51. Where is God's knowledge of future contingencies 
which never occurred declared? 

John 3:20 — "God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things." 

52. What is the Wisdom of God? 

His most exquisite skill in so adjusting causes to ef- 
fects, and means to ends that the purposes of His good 
and gracious will are never thwarted. 

Rom. 11:33 — "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 
knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past 
tracing out!" 

Job 12:13 — "With God is wisdom and might; he hath counsel and under- 
standing." 

Rom. 16:27 — "To the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be 
the glory forever." 

53. Before enumerating the Attributes or Perfections 
of the Divine Will, state whether there be a difference be- 
.zveen the Divine Essence and the Divine Will. 

The Divine Will is the Divine Essence directed towards 
the Good, and against the Evil, known by the Divine In- 
tellect. 

54. Is the Divine Will determined by any process or 
succession of thought? 

As the Divine Intellect by one, simple act knows all 
things (see above Question 49) so by one volition God 



Chap. II. ] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 3 1 

from eternity wills all that He wills. Distinctions are 
made in accommodation to our comprehension, which do 
not exist in the will itself. 

55. By what is the Divine Will characterized? 

By the attributes pertaining to the Divine Essence, of 
which the Absolute Attributes above enumerated (Quest. 
25 sqq.) are particularly to be regarded. It is independ- 
ent, because God is independent ; simple, because God is 
simple ; eternal, because God is eternal ; immutable, be- 
cause God is immutable. 

56. What distinctions, however, have been made? 
Distinctions founded on the diverse classes of objects 

comprehended in God's will, or which express the diverse 
modes with which He wills them. They are : 

(a) Into Natural and Free. The Natural Will is the 
expression of His Nature. He necessarily wills what is 
described by His attributes. The Free is that by which 
He wills what He might have willed otherwise, as the 
creation of the world, the incarnation, the redemption of 
the human race, the call of Paul as an apostle. 

(b) Into Efficacious and Inefficacious. This is an Au- 
gustinian distinction, which must be most carefully 
guarded. The Efficacious Will is one that is inevitably 
fulfilled, as the will to reward the godly, and punish the 
wicked, the will of Christ to give Himself for lost men 
(John 10: 18), and to rescue some souls from ruin. The 
Inefficacious, is one which is not fulfilled, since it has re- 
gard to conditions with which man does not comply, Thus 
it is the will of God that all should be saved ( i Tim. 2:4). 
But it is not God's will that any man should be saved 
against his own will, or that the freedom of man's will to 
resist God's gracious will concerning Himself should be 
destroyed. There are barriers which even God does not 
will to overcome. Nevertheless when men perish, it is 
not bcause of lack of efficacy in the Divine Will, but be- 



3 2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. ,11. 

cause they do not appropriate the divine efficacy exerted 
upon them. 

(c) Into Will of the Sign and Will cf the Purpose. The 
former is in reality the expression or declaration of the 
Will ; the latter is the Will in the proper sense. The for- 
mer is God's Will as declared through outward signs ; the 
latter, the Will, as it exists in God. The former, Luther, 
in his commentary on Genesis, refers to the Revealed 
Word of God; the latter, to God's pure Majesty, or hid- 
den counsel. Examples of "will of the sign" are Matt. 
6 : 10, 'Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth," 
where "will" means, "Whatever Thou commandest, or 
declarest that Thou wishest to be done," and I Thess. 
4: 13, "This is the will of God, even your sanctification," 
i. e., "This is the commandment or sign of the divine will, 
viz., your sanctification, that you abstain from fornica- 
tion." In general it may be said, that "the will of the 
sign" is that by which God indicates to men what He 
wants them to do ; and "the will of the purpose," that by 
which He has determined or decreed what He wants man 
to do, or what He wants to be done to men. Thus by the 
will of the sign, God wanted Abraham to make all prepa- 
tions for slaying Isaac, while by the will of His purpose, 
He determined to preserve his life. The will of the sign 
has been distributed by the Scholastics into five spheres or 
modes : "With respect to evil : Prohibition and permission. 
With respect to good : Precept, advice and operation." 
God declares, they say, that He wills something either by 
Himself or through others. If by Himself, directly, it is 
when He effects something; this is called "operation." If 
by Himself, indirectly, it is when He does not hinder or 
prevent an operation ; this is called "permission." But if 
God declares He wants something done by another, this 
occurs either by directly commanding what He wants 
done and prohibiting the contrary, or by a persuasive in- 
duction, viz., advice or counsel. 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 33 

Accurately speaking, however, "the will of the sign," 
is nothing more than "the sign of the will." For what- 
ever Gocl commands, prohibits, promises, threatens or 
does, is a sign of His will, although not of His entire 
purpose. The sign reveals what is nearest us, but not 
the remoter springs whence it flows. The will of the sign 
proceeds from the will of the purpose. The two can 
never be opposed to each other. The "will of the pur- 
pose" passes ultimately into "the will of the sign," when 
faith is replaced by knowledge, and what is obscure at 
one stage of revelation becomes clear at another (Eph. 
3:5; 4: 13; 1 Cor. 13: 12; John 13:7*). 

(d) Into Revealed and Secret. This is only a better 
statement of the distinction which has just been ex- 
plained. 

For the secret will : 

Rom. 11:33, "O the depth of the riches both of the 
wisdom and of the knowledge of God, how unsearchable 
are his judgments and his ways past tracing out." 

For the revealed will : 

John 6 : 40, 'This is the will of my Father that every 
one that beholdeth the Son and believeth on him should 
have eternal life." 

For both : 

Deut. 29 : 29, "The secret things belong unto Jehovah, 
our God, but the things that are revealed belong unto us 
and to our children forever." 

(e) Into Absolute and Conditioned. The former is 
without ; and the latter, with conditions. It was by His 
Absolute Will, that God determined to create the world ; 
for He willed this without condition. It is also by His 
Absolute Will, that they whom He foresees as believing 
on Him until the end, shall be saved ; for this also is with- 
out condition (Chapter IX, 15). But it is by His Con- 



Tor misapplication of this distinction, see Baier 136 (d). 



34 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

ditioned Will, that He wills the salvation of all men; for 
the condition is faith (Chapters IX, 16; XLI. 15, 16). 

(f) Into Absolute and Ordinate. The former is without, 
and the latter with regard to second causes. The Ordi- 
nate, while at first sight, equivalent to the conditioned, is 
found, on reflection, to differ. God wills that man's phys- 
ical life be nourished by food and drink, and that his 
spiritual life be quickened and sustained by the Means of 
Grace. In both cases there is an order of agencies through 
which God works. It is the conditioned will of God that 
men be saved if they believe; it is His ordinate will that 
they believe, viz., that from the Means of Grace rightly 
used, they obtain faith. God's will to create the world by 
His word was ordinate, but not conditioned. So also 
His will to raise the dead at the last day by the voice of 
the Archangel, is also ordinate. The meaning of "Abso- 
lute" must, therefore, be decided by determining whether 
it be the antithesis of "conditioned" or of "ordinate" 
(Chapter XLI, 15). 

(g) Antecedent and Consequent. The former refers to 
a disposition of God determined without regard to any 
circumstances ; the latter to one in which circumstances 
or conditions on the part of the creature, are regarded. 

Matt. 23:37 — "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and 

stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy 

children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
and ye would not." 

Here man's will is represented as frustrating the will 
of God. By His Antecedent Will, God would save Jeru- 
salem. But a condition intervenes and an order must be 
observed. Man retains the power to resist God's will, and 
not comply with the condition, and fall in with the order 
which God's will has arranged. Hence it is God's will 
both that Jerusalem should be saved, and that it should 
not be saved. According to His Antecedent Will, that it 
should be saved. According to His Consequent, that it 
should not be saved, but be left to its sins. 



Chap. II. ] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 35 

57. We are now ready to hear an enumeration of the 
Attributes of the Divine Will? 

Power, Justice and Truth, Goodness and Love, and 
Holiness. 

58. What is God's Pozverf 

He is Omnipotent, that is, He can do whatever He 
wills. 

Matt. 19:26 — "With God, all things are possible." 

Luke 18:27 — "The things which are impossible with men are possible 
with God." 

Ps. 115:3 — "Our God is in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he 
pleased." 

Ps. 135:6 — "Whatsoever Jehovah pleased that hath he done." 

59. Can God do what is wrong? 

Heb. 6:18 — "It is impossible for God to lie." 

60. Is not His pozver, therefore, limited? 

No. For God does not will, and cannot will what is 
contrary to His nature, or what would imply any imper- 
fection. Mortality or liability to death, fallibility or lia- 
bility to deception, mendacity or the power of deceiving 
and defrauding men, instead of implying power imply the 
lack of power. Every attribute ascribed to God, is a 
declaration that its opposite cannot be conceived of as 
possible. 

2 Tim. 2:13 — "He cannot deny himself." 

61. Against what further misunderstanding is God's 
Omnipotence to be guarded? 

Against every form of contradiction, e. g., as if it could 
be His will to make the deeds of the past matters that had 
never existed. Nevertheless what may seem contradic- 
tory and may actually be such within the sphere of the 
natural world, often is not such within the sphere of the 
supernatural. 

Eph. 3:20 — "Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
that we can ask or think." 

62. What is the Justice of God? 

That according to which God wills, approves, does and 



$6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

commands what is prescribed in His Law, and hates and 
punishes whatever conflicts with it. 

Deut. 32:4 — "A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right 
is he." 

Ps. 145:17 — "Jehovah is righteous in all his ways." 

Ps. 119:137 — "Righteous art thou, O Jehovah, and upright are thy judg- 
ments." 

63. But does not this elevate the Law above God 
Himself? 

No. For the Law is only the expression of God's na- 
ture. As declared to men in time, it is only the revelation 
of the immanent law, or standard, existing within God 
from all eternity. 

64. Is a thing then good because God has willed it, or 
has God willed it because it is good? 

, This question may be otherwise stated as asking 
whether the will of God, or His essence and attributes are 
the standard of right and wrong. 

For man it is enough to know that God has so willed a 
thing. For since there is complete harmony between the 
will and the attributes of God, whichever be regarded as 
the original, the result must be the same. 

65. But the question still arises: Is a thing good for 
no other reason than that it has been zvilled and com- 
manded by God? Are Truth and Love, for example, vir- 
tues only because of God's command? 

Some things are good entirely because of God's will 
and command, as the rites and ordinances of the Cere- 
monial Law, which had only temporary validity, and 
whose observance was condemned after the period had 
transpired for which they were appointed (Gal. 5:2). 

66. But how in regard to maiters of permanent and 
immutable morality, such as are declared in the Moral 
Law? 

They are rooted in God's own nature. Their ultimate 
standard, therefore, is not the will, but the very nature of 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 2)7 

God Himself. The highest grade of righteousness in 
man is the image of God, in which man was created. 

Eph. 4:24 — "The new man that after God hath been created in righteous- 
ness and holiness of truth. 

While therefore the observance of ceremonies and all 
positive commands are good and right only because God 
has willed them, other things God wills because they are 
right and good, as love to God and one's neighbor. Even 
though God had not prescribed them in any express com- 
mandment, they would not cease to be right and obliga- 
tory upon us. 

6y. In what different ways is the Divine Justice ex- 
ercised towards men? 

Either in prescribing or in executing laws. Laws are 
prescribed {Legislative Justice) both in conscience and in 
Scripture. They are executed {Distributive Justice) 
either by rewarding the good {Remunerative Justice) or 
by punishing the wicked {Retributive Justice). 

68. Is God's Retributive Justice essential or acci- 
dental? 

It belongs to God's very nature to hate and punish sin. 
No sin can permanently escape punishment, just as no 
good can fail of reward. 

Ex. 34:6, 7 — "A God that will by no means clear the guilty." 
Ps. 5:5 — "Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; evil shall 
not sojourn with thee." 

Ex. 23:7 — "I will not justify the wicked." 

Hab. 1:13 — "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil." 

Cf. 1 Tim. 5:24, 25. 

69. What attribute is most closely connected with 
Justice? 

Truth. For the Justice of God is God's being true to 
His nature. The truth of God is the conformity of His 
statements with reality, and His fidelity in fulfilling prom- 
ises and threatenings. 

See Deut. 32:4 (Quest. 62); Heb. 6:18 (Quest. 59). 

70. What is the Goodness of God? 



38 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. II. 

(a) On the one hand, His being absolutely perfect. 

Luke 18:19 — "None is good, save one, that is God." 
Mark 5:48 — "Your Heavenly Father is perfect." 

(b) His will to impart this perfection to others, the self- 
communication of all his moral excellences to creatures. 

James 1:17 — "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, com- 
ing down from the Father of lights." 

1 Cor. 4:7 — "What hadst thou, which thou didst not receive?" 
Rom. 2:4 — "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbear- 
ance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee 
to repentance?" 

(c) His attraction of men to Himself as to the Highest 
Good. 

Ps. 73:25, 26 — "Whom have 1 in heaven but thee? And there is none 
upon earth that I desire besides thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but 
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 

71. What does the Goodness of God include? 

His Love, i. e., His delight in His creatures, and His 
craving for their welfare, a reflection of a similar but 
higher relation between the Persons of the Trinity. 

1 John 4:8— "God is love." 

1 John 3:16 — "Hereby know we love, because he laid down his life for 
us." 

John 17:24 — "Thou lovedst me before the foundations of the world." 

J 2. What different forms are there of this love? 

(a) Love of benevolence, God's disposition from eter- 
nity towards a creature, prior to any good that can move 
this love (John 3 : 16). 

(b) Love of beneficence, by which He carries this love 
of benevolence into effect, in working His good will for 
and in it (Eph. 5 : 25). 

(c) Love of complacency, by which He delights in the 
fruits of the love of beneficence as they are seen by Him 
in regenerate men. 

Heb. 11:5 — "For he hath had witness borne to him that before his trans- 
lation he had been well-pleasing unto God." 

73. What is the first form in which this love is known? 

Grace, i. e., God's love regarded as gratuitous ; His 
favor shown without regard to man's merit, and in spite 
of man's demerit. 



Chap. II.] THE BEING AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. 2)9 

Rom. 11:6 — "But if it be by grace, it is no more of works; otherwise 
grace is no more grace." 

Rom. 3:24 — "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption 
that is in Christ Jesus." (Chapter IX, 9sqq.) 

74. Is the zvord used in Holy Scripture in any other 
sense? 

Yes, by customary figure of speech, for gifts bestowed 
by this grace. Of these, some are ordinary, as in I Cor. 
15:10: 

"I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not 1, but the grace of 
God which was with me." 

Others are extraordinary and miraculous. 

Eph. 4:7 — "But to each one of us was the grace given, according to the 
measure of the gift of Christ." 1 Cor. 12:4, 7, 8. 

75. What distinction in grace zvas made by the Schol- 
astics? 

Into Grace gratuitously given (Gratia gratis data) and 
Grace making grateful or acceptable (Gratia gratum fa- 
ciens). By the use of the former, man, it was taught, 
could gain relative merit, entitling him to the latter. As 
we shall see afterwhile, nothing recommends man to the 
consideration of God but the righteousness of Christ. The 
grace gratuitously given, and the grace making accept- 
able, cannot, therefore, be distinguished. 

j6. What distinction with a better Scriptural founda- 
tion zvas also current? 

Into Prevenient, Operating and Co-operating Grace. 
"Prevenient" grace precedes man's desire or care for sal- 
vation ; "Operating" grace works within man Repentance 
and Faith" ; "Co-operating," attends the exercise, by the 
regenerate, of the new powers which operating grace 
has implanted. It is readily seen that the distinctions are 
not of the grace itself but of man's various relations to 
this grace, and of the process whereby the Christian life 
within man begins and grows to perfection. 

yy. In zvhat other form is this Love known? 



40 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

As Mercy, or God's disposition to relieve the miserable, 
the divine compassion. 

Luke 1:78 — "The tender mercy of our God, whereby the Dayspring from 
on high hath visited us." 

Eph. 2:4 — "God being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he 
loved us." 

Ps. 103:8 — "Merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving 
kindness." 

78. Is there yet another form? 

Yes. God is long-suffering. By this, it is meant that 
He defers inflicting merited punishment, in order to 
afford an opportunity for repentance. 

Rom. 2:4 — "Despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance 
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to 
repentance?" 

2 Pet. 3:9 — "The Lord is long-suffering to you-ward, not wishing that any 
should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 

Rev. 2:21 — "I gave her time, that she should repent." 

79. What is the Holiness of God? 

That which separates and distinguishes Him from all 
that is not God ; the conformity of His will with His na- 
ture ; the sum of His moral attributes. 

Is. 6:3 — "And one cried to another and said: Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah 
of hosts." 1 Pet. 1:16 — "It is written, Ye shall be holy: for I am holy." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE TRINITY. 

1. What knowledge of God is peculiar to Christianity? 
That there is but one God ; and yet that this one God 

is Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

2. Is not this docirine taught by Natural Revelation? 
It is neither taught by Natural Revelation, nor can it 

be demonstrated from that source, even when the fact has 
been made known from Holy Scripture. It is a "pure," 
not a "mixed" doctrine. 

3. Do not some non-Christian religions teach a triad 
or threeness in God? 

Yes, as particularly, Hinduism and the religion of the 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 41 

Ancient Egyptians ; but such doctrine is entirely different 
from that of the Trinity, and not exclusive of Pantheism 
and Polytheism. 

4. Is it not taught in the Old Testament? 

It is suggested there, but not expressly taught. When 
the doctrine has been learned from the New Testament, 
it can be faintly traced in the Old. 

5. Who is first known to have used the term 
"Trinity"? 

Tertullian in "De Pudicitia," Chapter 21. 

6. But why should non-Scriptural terms be em- 
ployed? 

In order to express in one word what Holy Scripture 
teaches in many words and in numerous passages. 

7. Is not the doctrine one of purely theoretical or spec- 
ulative interest? 

By no means. It is intensely practical. The burning 
point of all controversies concerning it has reference to 
the nature of Jesus Christ, and involves the truth of His 
declarations as the Revealer of the Father, and the effi- 
cacy of His work as the Redeemer of the human race. 

8. Upon what three propositions does the doctrine of 
the Trinity rest? 

Upon the following : 

I. There is but one God. 
II. There are three who are declared to be God. 
III. The distinction between the three is not one of 
manifestation only, but is real and personal. 

9. What is meant when "unity" is ascribed to an ob- 
ject of thought? 

Either that such object is undivided within itself (af- 
firmatively) or that there is no other such object (ex- 
clusively). 



42 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

io. Apply this to God. 

He is one and but one, that is, He is the only God (Deus 
est unus et unicus). 

11. Give Scripture proofs. 

i Tim. 2:5 — "There is one God." 
Gal. 3:20 — "God is one." 

Deut. 6:4 — "Hear, Israel, Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah." 
Ex. 20:3 — "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." 
Is. 43:10, 11 — "Before me, there was no God formed, neither shall be 
after me. I, even I, am Jehovah; and besides me, there is no Saviour." 

12. Is not unity implied in the very conception of God? 
There cannot be more than one Supreme Being. For 

this reason, wherever among the heathen a plurality of 
gods in taught, the mind inevitably turns to one as su- 
preme, and regards the rest as subordinate. 

13. But is not this unity contradicted when we say 
that there are three who are Godf 

There would be a contradiction, if we were to teach 
that they are three in the same sense that they are one. 
If there are three who are God, and there be but one God, 
then the reference is to three distinctions within the one 
God. There cannot be three Gods. 

14. What grounds are there for holding that there are 
three who are Godf 

The first ground is that Father and Son and Holy 
Ghost can each separately be proved to be God. 

15. How? 

Because to each separately are ascribed: (a) Divine 
Names; (b) Divine Attributes; (c) Divine Works; (d) 
Divine Worship. 

16. Apply this four- fold argument to the Father. 

The argument concerning the Father is so overwhelm- 
ing that it has no opponents among those believing in the 
existence of God. The controversy is with those who 
deny that the argument belongs to the Son and the Holy 
Ghost. Nevertheless, to make the process complete, it is 
herewith recapitulated : 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 43 

To the Father are ascribed Divine Names : 

(a) Names: 

i Cor. 8:6 — "To us there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, 
and we unto him : and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, 
and we through him." 

2 Cor. i :3 — "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." 
Gal. 1:3 — "Grace and peace trom God the Father and our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

(b) Attributes: 

Omnipotence. — Matt. 11:25 — "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and 
earth." 

Mark 14:34 — "Abba Father, all things are possible with thee." 

Eternity. — Is. 9:6 — "The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father." 

Holiness. — John 17:11 — "Holy Father, keep through thine own those 
whom thou hast given me." 

Goodness. — Titus 3:5 — "But when the kindness of God our Saviour and 
his love appeared." 

Mercy. — 1 Peter 1:3 — "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, who, according to his great mercy, begat us unto a lively hope by 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 

Glory. — John 17:3 — "The glory which I had with thee before the world 
was." 

(c) Works: 

Here it is sufficient to refer to those mentioned in 1 Peter 1 :3 above 
cited, viz: Regeneration and Resurrection from the dead, and in 1 Cor. 
8:6, viz: Creation and Providence. 

(d) Worship: 

John 4:23 — "The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such doth the Father seek 
to be his worshippers." 

Phil. 2:11 — "That every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord to the 
glory of God the Father." 

John 16:23 — "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name." 

Rev. 1:6 — "Priests unto his God and Father." 

17. Applying this same argument to the Son, give, 
■first, passages in which the names of God are ascribed to 
the Son? 

John 1:1— "And the Word was God." Cf. v. 14. 

Rom. 9:5 — "Christ who is over all God blessed forever." 

Heb. 1:8 — "Of the Son he saith: Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." 

John 20:28 — "Thomas answered and said unto him: My Lord and my 

God." 

1 John 5:20— "His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal 

life." 

Titus 2:13 — "The appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour 

Jesus Christ," or as in the margin, "of our great God and Saviour Jesus 

Christ." 



44 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

18. How is this argument from Divine Names ascribed 
to Jesus Christ further confirmed ? 

By a comparison between many passages in the Old 
with others in the New Testament. 

(a) Thus the theophany of Is. 6:1, is explained in 

John 12:41 — "These things said Isaiah because he saw his glory; and he 
spake of him. Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed on him," i. e., 
on Jesus. 

(b) The sublime description of the immortality of Jehovah, in Ps. 102: 
25-27, is quoted in Heb. 1:8, 10, 12, as referring to the Son. 

"Of the Son he saith: Thou Lord in the beginning didst lay the founda- 
tion of the earth," etc. 

(c) Isa. 7:14 — "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall 
call his name Immanuel," is quoted in Matt. 1:21, "And thou shalt call 
his name Jesus; for it is he that shall save his people from their sins." 

(d) Isa. 40:3 — "The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilder- 
ness the way of Jehovah," is interpreted by John 1 123, 30 as referring to 
John the Baptist's relation to Jesus. 

19. What attributes of God are ascribed to the Son? 
He is Eternal. 

Col. 1:17 — "He is before all things, and in him all things consist." John 
1:2 — "The same was in the beginning with God." Rev. 1:8 — "I am the 
Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come the Al- 
mighty." 

He is Immutable. 

Heb. 1:12 — "They shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years 
sball not fail." Heb. 13:8 — "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today 
and forever." II Cor. 1:19 — "The Son of God, Jesus Christ, was not yea 
and nay, but in him is yea." 

He is Omnipresent. 

Matt. 28:20 — "Lo, I am with you always even unto the end of the world." 
Matt. 18:20 — "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them." Eph. 1 123 — "The fullness of him that filleth 
all in all." 

He is Omniscient. 

John 2:25 — "He needed not that any should bear witness concerning man; 
for he himself knew what was in man." John 1:48 — "Before Philip called 
thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." Rev. 2:18, 23 — 
"Thus saith the Son of God, I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts." 
John 21:17 — "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." 

He is Omnipotent. 

Matt. 28:18 — "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on 
earth." Rev. 1:18 — "I have the keys of death and of Hades." Phil. 3:21 — 
"He is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Heb. 1:3 — "Upholding 
all things by the word of his power." Col. 1:17 — "He is before all things, 
and in him all things consist." 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 45 

He is Life. 

John 14:6 — "I am the way, the truth and the life." John 11:25 — "I am 
the resurrection and the life." John 5:21 — "The Son giveth life to whom 
he will." 

20. What works peculiar to God belong to the Son? 

(a) Creation, John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:10 (See 
above). 

(b) Preservation, Col. 1 :iy; Heb. 1 13 (See above). 

(c) Forgiving sins, Mark 2\J, 10, and saving, Matt. 
1 : 21. 

(d) Raising the dead. 

2 Cor. 1:9 — "We trust in God who raiseth the dead." John 6:39 — "This 
is the will of the Father that of all that which he hath given me, 1 should 
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." 

(e) Judging the world. 

John 5:22, 23 — "For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath 
given all judgment unto the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they 
honor the Father." For to exercise this office infinite knowledge, power 
and majesty are required. 

21. What zv or ship is claimed for the Son? 

(a) Equal honor with the Father (John 5 : 23, as 
above). 

(b) Baptism is to be administered in the name of the 
Son, just as in that of the Father (Matt. 28: 19). 

(c) We are bidden to believe in the Son, just as in the 
Father. 

John 14:1 — "Believe in God, believe also in me." 

(d) He is to be religiously adored. 

Phil. 2:10 — "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." 
Rev. 5:12-14 — "Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the 
power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. 
And every created thing which is in the heaven and on the earth and under 
the earth, and on the sea, and all things that are in them heard I saying, 
Unto him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb be the blessing and 
the glory and the dominion forever and ever." 

22. What adds especial force to these ascriptions of 
worship as an argument proving that the Son is God? 

The fact that God has revealed Himself as a jealous 
God, sharing His honor with none else. 

Is. 42:8 — "I am Jehovah; that is my name, and my glory will I not give 
unto another." Cf. Ex. 20:3, 5. 



46 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

23. Where is the zvorship of the very highest of crea- 
tures reproved? 

When John intended to worship an angel he heard 
these words : 

Rev. 22:9 — "See thou do it not; I am a fellow-servant with thee and with 
thy brethren the prophets and with them that keep the words of this book; 
worship God." 

24. Where are the Names of God ascribed to ihe Holy 
Ghost? 

Acts 5:3, 4 — "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie unto the Holy 
Ghost Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God." 

1 Cor. 3:16— "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the 
Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" 

1 Cor. 12:4-6 — "Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 
And there are diversities of administrations, and the same Lord. And 
there are diversities of workings, but the same God who worketh all things 
in all." 

1 Sam. 2^:2 — "The Spirit of Jehovah spake by me," interpreted in v. 
3: "The God of Israel said." 

25. What attributes of God are ascribed Him? 
Eternity. 

Heb. 9:14 — "Christ who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself with- 
out blemish unto God." So, in accordance with the ordinary mode of 
describing the eternal in the Old Testament, as that which preceded the 
creation, Ps. 90:2, the Spirit is mentioned in Is. 40:13: "Who hath directed 
the Spirit of Jehovah, or, being his counsellor, hath taught him?" 

Omnipresence. 

Ps. 139:7 — "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall 1 
flee from thy presence?" 

Omniscience. 

: Cor. 2:10 — "The Spirit searcheth all things; yea the deep things of 
God." 

26. What works of God are ascribed to the Holy 
Ghost? 

(a) Works of Power, as creation. 

Gen. 1:2; Ps. 33:6 — "All the host of them by the breath of his mouth;" 
104:30: "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created;" Conception of 
Jesus, Luke 1:35; Casting out of demons, Matt. 12:28; Anointing of Jesus 
as Christ, Acts 10:38. 

(b) Works of Grace, as His activity in everything per- 
taining to the redemption and salvation of man. 

(c) Works of Justice, culminating in raising the dead. 



Chap. III.] the trinity. 47 

Rom. 8:11 — "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, 
dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give 
life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you " 

2J. Where is divine worship addressed Him? 

(a) According to Matt. 28: 19, Baptism is to be admin- 
istered in His name. 

(b) In 1 Cor. 6 : 19, the hearts of believers are said to be 
temples of the Holy Ghost. 

(c) He is joined with the Father and the Son in the 
Apostolic benediction (2 Cor. 13: 13). 

28. How can you prove the fact that the Holy Ghost 
is God by a comparison of Old and New Testament 
passages? 

When what is ascribed to God or Jehovah in the Old 
Testament, is ascribed in the New to the Holy Ghost. 
Thus in Is. 6: 8-10, words spoken by Jehovah, are quoted 
in Acts 28 : 25 as spoken by the Holy Ghost through 
Isaiah. If in Is. 1:2 ; Ez. 1:3; Jer. 1:2; Hos. 1 : 1, etc., 
Jehovah is declared to be speaking through the prophets, 
this is further interpreted in 2 Peter 1:21, when men of 
God are said to have spoken "as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost/' and 1 Peter 1 : 11, "Searching what time or 
what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ, which was in 
them did point unto." 

29. What is the chief point of attack concerning the 
divinity of the Holy Ghost? 

The force of the above argument is met by the asser- 
tion that the Holy Ghost is not distinct from the Father, 
but His Spirit, i. e., His intelligence, will and energy. 
This will be considered below. (Q. 32.) 

30. What second class of arguments may be adduced 
for the doctrine of the Trinity? 

Those passages of Scripture in which all three, Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost, are co-ordinated. 

(a) The Theophany at Christ's baptism (Matt. 3: 16, 
17) where Jesus is baptized, the Holy Ghost is present in 



48 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

the visible form of a dove, and the Father speaks from the 
opened heavens. 

(b) The Baptismal Formula, Matt. 28 : 19, "Go ye, 
therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them 
into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy 
Ghost." 

(c) The Apostolic Benediction, 2 Cor. 13:13, 'The 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and 
the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all." 

(d) The Promises of Christ, John 14: 16, "I will pray 
the Father and he shall give you another Comforter even 
the Spirit of Truth." 15:26, "When the Comforter is 
come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father." 

(e) Similar formulas of St. Paul, as 1 Cor. 12:4-6 (see 
above, O. 24), Eph. 4:4-6. 

31. But may not Father, Son and Holy Ghost be only 
different forms or modes of manifestation of God? 

No. For Father and Son are expressly distinguished 
as "other." 

John 5:32, Z7 — "It is another that beareth witness of me.... the Father 
that sent me, he hath borne witness of me." 

The Father speaks of the Son, and the Son of the 
Father, the Father addresses the Son, and the Son ad- 
dresses and prays to the Father. The Spirit is constantly 
carefully distinguished from both Father and Son. These 
statements are manifest throughout the entire New Tes- 
tament, and particularly in John, Chapters XIV-XVII. 

32. How do you answer the proposed explanation, 
mentioned above (Q. 29) that the Holy Ghost is simply 
the divine energy or power f 

The names by which He is designated are personal, as 
in the Baptismal Formula and Apostolic Benediction. 
They cannot be a personification of God's power. Personal 
works are ascribed Him ; He teaches* prays, speaks, gov- 
erns the Church. Personal revelations are made, as at 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 49 

Christ's Baptism and at Pentecost. Personal occurrences 
are mentioned, e. g., He is blasphemed (Matt. 12: 31), is 
tempted (Acts 5:9), dwells in the hearts of believers (1 
Cor. 3:16), is resisted (Acts 7:51), is grieved (Eph, 
4:30). The distinctions between Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost cannot, then, be modal, but are personal. 

33. What result has now been reached by this argu- 
ment? 

The establishment of the three propositions set forth 
under Question 8. 

34. How is this doctrine taught by the Church? 

In the Athanasian Creed it is thus stated : "We worship 
one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither con- 
founding the Persons nor dividing the Substance. For 
there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and 
another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the 
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one, 
the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal. Such as the 
Father is, such is the Son and such the Holy Ghost. . . „ 
The Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Ghost 
is God ; and yet there are not three Gods, but one God." 

And in the Augsburg Confession : "There is one divine 
essence which is called and is God. . . . and yet there 
are three persons of the same essence and power, who 
also are co-eternal, the Father, the Son and the Holy 
Ghost." 

35. What does the Athanasian Creed mean when it 
speaks of the "substance" and the Augsburg Confession, 
when it speaks of the "essence" of God? 

That which makes God God, His very being, that of 
which all His perfections and attributes are the ex- 
pression. 

36. Hozv is this essence common to all three persons ? 
Not as though it were divided among them, or each 

contributed to it a part; for this would be contrary to the 



50 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

Unity and Simplicity of God. But to each person, belongs 
the entire divine essence. The Father is not God with- 
out the Son or the Holy Ghost. The entire one essence 
is in the three persons collectively and individually. There 
are three who are God, and, nevertheless, there are not 
three Gods. 

$J. What is meant by "person"? 

''Not a part or quality in another but that which prop- 
erly subsisteth" (Augsburg Confession). Father, Son 
and Holy Ghost are not parts of God, as man's spirit is 
a part of his complex nature ; neither are they qualities or 
attributes of God, as God's love, is God considered as 
loving, and God's omniscience is God considered as 
knowing. But they "properly subsist," i. e., they have a 
distinct and independent relation, apart from our thought 
or God's revelation. While "the Father is God, and the 
Son God, and the Holy Ghost God," the Father is neither 
the Son nor the Holy Ghost. "For there is one person of 
the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy 
Ghost." "We are compelled by the Christian verity to 
acknowledge every person by Himself to be God and 
Lord" (Athanasian Creed). 

38. What are the distinguishing attributes of per- 
sonality? 

Self-consciousness and self-determination. 

39. What is a brief definition of "person"? 
A person is one who can say "I." 

40. What distinguishes "person" in Grammar? 

The personal pronouns. "I" and "thou" express per- 
sonal relations. When the Father speaks of Himself as 
I and addresses the Son as "Thou," or when the Son re- 
fers to either Father or Holy Ghost as "He," there is a 
clear distinction of personality taught. 

41. For the popular statement of the subject, this is 
sufficient. What value, then, must be attached 10 the cur- 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 51 

rent Scholastic definition, as revised by the Reformers of 
both branches of Protestantism? 

Each term is carefully chosen with reference to both 
actual and possible controversies or misunderstandings. 

42. Repeat it. 

"A person is a substance, individual, intelligent, incom- 
municable, not sustained in another, or a part of another." 

43. Why is "person" defined as substance? 

To affirm (a) that it is not a mere subjective concep- 
tion. It is more than an idea, or matter of thought, (b) 
In contrast with what is accidental. 

44. Does this imply any contradiction with the for- 
mula of the Athanasian Creed that God is one in sub- 
stance? 

Like the "persons," the "essence" of God, is neither a 
mere subjective conception, nor accidental. The Schol- 
astic definition only attempts to define one species of sub- 
stance from another. At every stage in the attempt to 
reduce the contents of divine revelation into the technical 
terms of philosophy, the inadequacy of these terms be- 
comes apparent. Loqnimur de his rebus non ut debemus, 
sed ut possumus. 

45. What is meant by the descriptive terms "individ- 
ual" "intelligent" "incommunicable," "not sustained in 
another," "not the part of another"? 

"Individual" is what distinguishes one from others of 
the same nature, the characteristic of what is separate and 
distinct. The individuality of each person is clearly pre- 
sented in the declarations of the Schmalkald Articles : 
"The Father is begotten of no one ; the Son, of the Father ; 
the Holy Ghost proceeds from Father and Son. Not the 
Father, not the Holy Ghost, but the Son became man." 

"Intelligent," having self-consciousness and thought. 
No tree or beast is a person. 

"Incommunicable," i. e., incapable of imparting its in- 



52 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

dividuality to another. The personality of one can never 
become the personality of another. No human father 
communicates his personality to the children whom he 
begets. 

"Not sustained in another," to exclude any thought 
that the relation is analogous to that of the humanity of 
Christ to His divine nature. The one had a beginning in 
time, the latter was from all eternity ; the one originated 
from the act of the latter, and exists only through that act. 

"Nor a part of another." This is the statement of the 
Augsburg Confession, explained in Q. 37. 

46. Hozv does "person" as used here differ from the 
same term as applied to men and angels? 

In the latter case, each person has an essence of his 
own ; here there is but one essence for the three persons. 

47. By what term did the early Greek theologians 
designate the distinction which we indicate by "person"? 

"Hypostasis." They preferred this to "person," because 
they regarded it more irreconcilable with Sabellianism 
than the Greek word for "person," which means likewise 
"a mask," and could readily be perverted into the con- 
ception that the distinctions in God were not real, intrinsic 
and immanent, but only different economical and official 
manifestations assumed in time. 

48. In zvhat are ihe three persons alike or the same? 

(a) They have, as we have shown, the same undivided 
divine essence. This was confessed by the Council of 
Chalcedon in the declaration that one Person is "consub- 
stantial," or in Greek "homoousios" with the other. 

(b) They have the same Majesty, so that no preference 
is given one Person above another. 'The Glory equal, 
the Majesty co-eternal." "In this Trinity, none is before 
or after other ; none is greater or less than another" 
(Athanasian Creed). 

(c)Each of the three persons exists in the essence of 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 53 

each of the two others. This was designated by the 
Greek Fathers as perichoresis, or the eternal and insepa- 
rable pervasion of one person by the other. John 14: 10, 
"I am in the Father and the Father in me." 

49. In what are they distinguished? 

By certain modes, not of manifestation, but of simul- 
taneous subsistence of the one divine essence. They bear 
a certain relationship to each other based upon two per- 
sonal acts, which result in five personal peculiarities. 

50. What are these personal acts? 

Thev are immanent and eternal activities of God, 
known as opera ad intra, because they do not go out of 
God, but are wrought within Him. These are Generation 
and Spiration, when viewed with respect to the activity 
itself, or Filiation and Procession, when viewed with re- 
spect to its results. 

51. What is Generation? 

That activity whereby one Person is Father and another 
Son. Or, more specifically, "the act, whereby God the 
Father, from all eternity, by the communication of His 
essence, begets the Son, His image, truly and properly, 
yet in a supernatural and inscrutable way." 

52. From what conceptions must it be guarded? 
From that of creation, as though there could have been 

a time when the Son were not. From that of completion, 
as though the activity were one act that has ended or is 
not continuous. From all ideas of succession, change, 
division or multiplication. From all attempts to explain 
it figuratively ; for if the generation be figurative, then 
God is Father and God is Son only figuratively and not 
really. Yet literal as it is, it is raised above all the limi- 
tations of human relationships. It is the human relation- 
ship which is a feeble figure of the divine. 

53. Upon zvhat Scriptural grounds docs this rest? . 



54 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

(a) 

Ps. 2:7 — "Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee." Compare with 
this the New Testament passages which take it as a basis: Acts 13:33 — "As 
it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten 
thee." Heb. 1:5 — "But unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou 
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" 

Heb. 5:5 — "Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but he 
that spake unto him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." 
God's day is eternity. 

(b) Express declarations of the peculiar nature of 
Christ's Sonship : 

John 1:14 — "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten from 
the Father." 

John 1:18 — "The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father 
he hath declared him." (Margin: Many ancient authorities read: "God 
only begotten" instead of "only begotten Son." So especially Codex Sinaiti- 
cus.) 

Rom. 8:32 — "He that spared not his own Son." The "his own" is not 
a simple possessive, but is the adjective "idios," meaning his own in a 
peculiar sense, a sense in which none other would be called his son. Com- 
pare with this John 5:18, where Jesus is understood, by calling God "his own 
Father," using "idios," and therefore claiming God as Father in a sense 
none else could claim, as "making himself equal with God." 

John 3:16 — "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." 

Heb. 1 -.3 — "Who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image 
of his substance." 

54. What is Spiraiion? 

The activity of the Father and the 'Son, whereby, from 
all eternity, the Holy Ghost proceeds from both. 

55. Is it identical with the activity by which the Son 
is generated? 

No. The Holy Ghost is nowhere said to be begotten ; 
and if this had been so, He would be Son and not Holy 
Ghost. 

56. What proof is there that the Holy Ghost pro- 
ceeds from the Father? 

John 15:26 — "The Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father." 

57. Is our Lord's promise that He would send the 
Holy Ghost a proof that He proceeds from the Son as 
well as from the Father? 

Not of itself, for a distinction must be made between 
the gift of the Holy Spirit in time from the Ascended 
Saviour, and a relation subsisting in God from all eternity. 



Chap. III.] THE TRINITY. 55 

58. Why then did the Western Church maintain in 
opposition to the Greek Church that He proceeds not only 
from the Father but also from the Son? 

(a) Because if He is called in one passage of Holy 
Scripture, as in Matt. 10:20, "the Spirit of the Father,'' 
He is called elsewhere "the Spirit of His Son" (Gal. 4: 6) 
and "the Spirit of Christ" (Rom. 8:9). 

(b) Because in John 16: 15, His relation to the Son is 
described as such that all that the Spirit teaches is derived 
through the Son. 

(c) The Son is sent equally by the Father and the 
Son (John 16:7; John 15:26). 

(d) Without the procession from the Son as well as 
from the Father, it would be difficult to distinguish the 
Spirit from the Son, or to hold that the Son would not be 
subordinate to the Father. 

(e) Our Lord's breathing upon His disciples with the 
words : "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," was regarded a 
figure of what occurs from all eternity. 

(f) Hence "the river of water of life, bright as crystal, 
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb," 
in Rev. 22: 1, was widely applied to the double proces- 
sion from eternity. 

Without urging the complete decision of the question 
by each argument separately, taken together they indicate 
sucn a relations, 'p, as to render any other inference very 
difficult. 

59. What then are the five personal peculiarities 
founded upon these two acts? 

Two belong to the Father alone : That He is unbe got- 
ten ("The Father is made of none, neither created, nor 
begotten." — Athanasian Creed), and Paternity. One be- 
longs to the Son : Filiation, that He receives and has all 
His essence of the Father. One belongs jointly to Father 
and Son : Spiration, and one to the Holy Ghost : Pro- 
cession. 



56 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. III. 

60. Is there not then an order? 

Undoubtedly, yet not of rank or of time, but of origin 
and operation. 

When the Athanasian Creed confesses : "None is before 
or after other," the next clause interprets it : "None is 
greater or less than another." The order is : "The 
Father"; "the Son of the Father" ; "the Holy Ghost, of 
the Father and the Son." Or: "The Father through the 
Son in the Holy Ghost." 

Rom. 11:33 — "For of him and through him and unto him are all things."' 
John 5:19 — "The Son can do nothing of himself, but whatsoever he seeth 
the Father doing." 

61. Is the term "Father" zvhen applied to God always 
restricted to the First Person of the Trinity? 

It often refers to the essence of God, and thus belongs 
to all three persons alike. When in the Lord's Prayer we 
address, "Our Father which art in Heaven," no Trini- 
tarian relation is expressed or implied. We pray to all 
three persons in the one essence. The entire being of 
God is Father to men both by creation and regeneration. 
Nor can we address one person of the Trinity in prayer 
without addressing all; for they are all and in all, since 
they are one in essence. 

62. Besides the immanent acts, not common to all per- 
sons, bnt distinguishing them from each other (opera ad 
intra), what other personal acts are there? 

The external activities proceeding from the power com- 
mon to all three persons, and directed to an end outside 
of God (opera ad extra). 

6$. What especially distinguishes them from the for- 
mer class? 

They are common to all three persons. For this reason,, 
they are sometimes called "essential," while the immanent 
acts are called "personal." Nevertheless each person has 
manifested Himself in a peculiar way in a temporal work 
or act, which is ascribed to Him not exclusively or pre- 



Chap. IV.] creation. 57 

dominantly, but because of the prominence given to that 
person in the description of said act in Revelation. 

64. Name them. 

Creation., or the external work of the Father. 
Redemption, or the external work of the Son. 
Sanctification, or the external work of the Holy Ghost. 

65. What traces are there {see Q. 4) of this doctrine 
in the Old Testament? 

It explains the passages where God speaks of God and 
the Lord of the Lord (Gen. 19:24; Ex. 16:7; 34:5,6; 
Xum. 14: 21) ; those in which the Son of God is explicitly 
mentioned (Ps. 2:y) ; those in which a plurality of Per- 
sons is mentioned (Gen. 1 : 1,2; Ex. 31:1,3; Ps. 33 : 6; 
Is. 61 : 1), as well as those in which God speaks of Him- 
self in the plural number (Gen. 1:26; 3:22), or where 
the name of God or Jehovah is thrice repeated (Num. 
6 : 23-26 ; Deut. 6 : 4, 5 ; Ps. 42 : 1, 2 ; 67 : 6, 7) . 

66. What philosophical arguments for the Trinity 
hare been used and what is their value? 

One from personality. Personality implies self-con- 
sciousness, and self-consciousness implies three things, a 
subject contemplating, an object contemplated and a sub 
ject conscious that that which contemplates and that 
which is contemplated are the same. 

Another from love. This implies a subject loving, an 
object loved, and the communion of love in a third who 
unites the love of the one loving and the one loved. 

Both have value as illustrations, but not as arguments. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CREATION. 

I. What is the relation of this chapter to what 
precedes? 

We come now to the more specific treatment of God in 
relation to what is not God. This, of necessity, has been 



58 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IV. 

anticipated, to an extent, in considering the Divine Attri- 
butes. But what has been only incidentally mentioned, is 
now to be more fully examined. Recurring to the exter- 
nal activities of God {Opera ad extra) defined at the close 
of preceding chapter (Q. 62, 63), we may say that all that 
remains for us in this treatise, is to treat of the three 
themes, Creation, Redemption and Sanctification. 

2. What is Creation? 

The act by which God brought into being that which 
had no pre-existence, except in His thought. 

Heb. 11:3 — "By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by 
the word of God, so that what is seen, hath not been made out of things 
which appear." 

3. Whence do we derive our knowledge of this act? 

Solely from Revelation. It is a pure, not a mixed doc- 
trine. The heathen cosmogonies and modern scientific 
heathenism, with many divergent theories, some in a pan- 
theistic, others in a dualististic, and still others in a purely 
materialistic way, exclude the free activity and will of a 
sole Eternal, Omnipotent, Supreme Being. The New 
Testament references of which Heb. 11:3 is central, pre- 
suppose the detailed description with which Holy Scrip- 
ture opens in Gen. 1. 

4. What is the purpose and scope of the Mosaic ac- 
count? 

It has a religious and not a scientific end. Its aim is 
not so much to record a detailed cosmogony in opposition 
to the many elaborate hypotheses which had preceded, as 
to solemnly affirm the supremacy and omnipotent activity 
of God, and the goal of all creation in Man, as its summit, 
towards which each successive creative act was an ad- 
vance. 

5. Who created the world? 
The Triune God. 

Father. 

1 Cor. 8:6 — "God the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him." 



Chap. IV.] creation. 59 

Son. 

i Cor. 8:6 — "One Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things." 
Col. 1:15, 16 — "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of 
all creation; for in him are all things created in the heavens and upon the 
earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or princi- 
palities or powers, all things have been created through him and unto him." 
John 1:3 — "All things were made by him." 

Holy Ghost. 

Ps. 104:30— "Thou sendest forth thy Spirit; they are created." 
Ps. 33:6 — "All the host of them by the breath of his mouth." 
Gen. 1:2 — "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." 

6. But does not the Apostles' Creed ascribe this work 
in an especial sense to the Father? 

Yes, according to the order of the Persons of the Trin- 
ity, and because what the Father has of Himself, the Son 
and Holy Ghost have of the Father. 

7. Are Father, Son and Holy Ghost, then, associated 
causes of creation? 

There is but one Creator. The three Persons are one 
God, and one cause and Author of creation. 

8. Whence came God's purpose to create? 

All the external works of God proceed from His free 
will, and not from His natural will or any inner necessity, 
as do the immanent or personal works. 

9. Does "creaie' ahvays mean "to produce from 
nothing"? 

Theologians distinguish between "immediate" and "me- 
diate creation." The former is the proper sense of the 
term ; in the latter sense, it refers to the producing of 
something from pre-existing material, as in Gen. 1 : 11, 
the coming forth of grass and trees from the earth ; and 
yet even here there is that which calls for an immediate 
creative act of God, for grass and trees could never be 
produced by mere matter. Man's soul was created im- 
mediately, and his body mediately. In Ps. 51 : 10, "Create 
in me a clean heart," the word refers to a change of prop- 
erties or renewal. It is with immediate creation that we 
have to do here. 



60 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IV. 

io. When creation is defined as "to produce from 
nothing," what is meant by "nothing"? 

Absolute non-existence. Not "a relative nothing," as 
from matter without form and void. 

ii. Could the world have been created from eternity? 

No. For eternity is an attribute of God alone. As- 
cribe eternity to a creature, and you ascribe infinity, for 
eternity is infinite duration. 

12. Was there time before the creation? 

With the creation, time began. For time implies suc- 
cession, and, as before the creation, God alone existed 
and God is immutable, there was no succession. 

13. How was the zvorld created? 

Not by the thought, but by the word of God. 

Ps. 33:6 — "By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made." 9: "He 
spake and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast." Gen. 1:3 — "God 
said: Let there be light, and there was light." John 1:1-3 shows that this 
was none else than the Personal Word of God, or Second Person of the 
Trinity, expressing and revealing the thought and purpose of God. 

14. What zvas the product of creation? 

Heaven and earth. By the former is meant not only 
the visible heavens with their stars, planets, comets, me- 
teors, etc., but the entire superterrestrial world of spirits 
(2 Cor. 12:2; Rev. 4:1). By the latter, also all that 
earth contains. The physical insignificance of the earth 
is compensated by its destiny as the abode of the incarnate 
God, and the theatre of Redemption. 

15. What zvas the purpose of Creation? 

The manifestation of the perfections of God, as the 
ultimate end ; the highest welfare of man as the subor- 
dinate. 

16. What perfections? 

The glory of His goodness, wisdom and power. 

Ps. 19:1, 2 — "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night 
sheweth knowledge." Ps. 104; Ps. 106:4-9; 148; Rev. 4:11. 

Ps. 8:1, 3 — "0 Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, 
who hast set thy glory upon the heavens. When I consider thy heavens 



Chap. IV.] CREATION. 61 

the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, 
what is man that thou art mindful of him?" 

These attributes are specifically mentioned: Goodness, Ps. 145:9, 10; 
Wisdom, Ps. 104:24; Power, Is. 40:26; Rom. 1:20. 

17. Show that the highest welfare of man zvas the 
subordinate end? 

Ps. 8:4, 6 — "What is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of 
man that thou visitest him? Ihou makest him to have dominion over the 
works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet." 

18. But docs not the Epistle to the Hebrews {Chap. 
2:7) declare that this refers to Christ? 

Yes, as the Son of man, the ideal or representative 
Man, through whom the dominion over creation, lost by 
the fall, is more than restored. 

1 Cor. 3:21 — "For all things are yours." 

19. Where else is the same doctrine taught? 

Gen. 1 126 — "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our 
likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth." Ps. 
115:7 — "The earth hath he given to the children of men." 

20. But does not the New Testament go still further? 
Yes, by declaring that all creatures, even angels, exist 

for the sake of men. 

Heb. 1:14 — "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service 
for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation." 

1 Cor. 3:22 — "The world or life or death or things present or things to 
come, all are yours." 

Rom. 8:28 — "We know that to them that love God, all things work to- 
gether for good." 

21. Does this, however, depend upon the Order of 
Creation? 

No ; but of Redemption, in which the superiority of 
Man appears in that the Son of God personally united 
Himself to a human nature, thus distinguishing it above 
all creatures. Nevertheless God had this exalted destiny 
of the human race and the Plan of Redemption in view 
from the beginning. It was no afterthought ; for God 
has no afterthoughts. 

22. But is not the difficulty greater in regarding the 
lozvest of creatures subservient to mans highest welfare? 



62 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IV. 

Yes, for, to natural reason, some seem absolutely use- 
less, and others harmful. In answer to this, we need only 
cite a passage from Augustine : "If an unskilled person 
were to enter the shop of a mechanic, he would see many 
instruments of whose use he would be ignorant, and if 
very unintelligent they would seem superfluous. Or if an 
incautious person were to fall into a furnace, or were to 
wound himself with some steel instrument, he would re- 
gard many things harmful, whose use the artisan well 
knows, and therefore laughs at the folly and unadvised 
words of the critic. Nevertheless men are so silly, that 
while they do not venture to blame such a mechanic with 
respect to tools of which they are ignorant, but when they 
see them believe them necessary and adapted to some 
use ; nevertheless in this world, whose Maker and Admin- 
istrator is God, they attempt to criticise many things, the 
causes for which they do not see, and in regard to the 
works and tools of the Almighty Workman want to seem 
to know that of which they are ignorant." 

23. For what various uses of man are creatures in- 
tended? 

Some are for the nourishment of the bodily life. 

Gen. 1:29 — "Behold I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is 
upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a 
tiee yielding seed; to you it shall be for food." Prov. 27:26 — "The lambs 
are for thy clothing." 

Others for man's thankful delight and pleasure. 

1 Tim. 6:17 — "Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy." Ps. 145:16 — 
"Thou openest thy hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing." 

1 Tim. 4:4 — "Every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be re- 
jected if it be received with thanksgiving." 

Some are remedies. 

E. g. Oil, James 5:17; Oil and wine, Luke 10:34; Figs, 2 Kings 20:7. 

Others are preventives of disease, and preservatives of 
health. 

Ps. 103:5 — "Who satisfieth thy desire with good things, so that thy youth 
is renewed like the eagle's." 

Some aid man in his life and appointed work on earth. 



Chap. IV.] creation. 63 

Gen. 1:15 — "Lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light upon the 
earth." 

Ps. 78:53 — "The sea overwhelmed their enemies." 

Acts 14:17 — "He gave from heaven rain and fruitful seasons." 

Amos 6:12 — "Will one plow there with oxen?" 

Others are for example and imitation. 

Matt. 6:26 — "Behold the fouls of the air." 
Prov. 6:6 — "Go to the ant, thou sluggard." 
Is. 40:31 — "They shall mount up with wings as eagles." 
Matt. 10:27 — "My sheep hear my voice and I know them." 
1 Cor. 15:41 — "One star differeth from another star in glory." 
Ps. 125:1, 2 — "They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion. As 
the mountains are round about Jerusalem." 

Ps. 1 :3 — "Like a tree planted by the streams of water." 

24. What proof of this can be found outside of Rev- 
elation? 

Man's progress in civilization is determined by the pro- 
gress made in the application of the objects and forces of 
the natural world to his use. Objects regarded useless 
for centuries are estimated at a high value when their 
proper use has been discovered. Illustrations are found 
in the modern application of steam, light (Photography), 
electricity, radium and other results of Physics, Chem- 
istry, Astronomy and Meteorology, and in the constant 
advance of discovery and the cultivation of regions pre- 
viously unknown, or regarded irreclaimable. The light- 
ning is used to flash man's words around the globe, and 
even the most irresistible floods of waters are diverted to 
commercial ends and to carry men from place to place. 
Niagara is harnessed. All is in virtue of the divine com- 
mand, "Replenish the earth and subdue it." 

25. In what did Creation end? 

First of all in God's admiring contemplation of the 
result. 

Gen. 1:31 — "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it 
was very good." 

Nothing that God has created is in itself evil ; it can 
become such only by its use in another sphere than that 
for which God designed it. 



64 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IV. 

26. What is Optimism? 

The theory that the world as it came from God is the 
very best that was possible. 

27. Hozv must this theory be qualified? 

By the circumstance that the original creation was 
only preparatory to still higher stages of perfection at- 
tainable only in the New Heavens and the New Earth. 
The goodness of the creature as it came from God's 
hands was that of the acorn not of the oak, that of the 
new-born child, and not that of the fully developed man. 
So would it have been even if sin had not entered. But 
through Redemption, as we shall hereafter see, it attains 
a yet higher grade. 

28. What accompanied God's admiring contemplation 
of Creation? 

Gen. 2:2 — "He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he 
had made." 

This is made prominent by the frequent references to 
it, as in Heb. 4:4; Ex. 20 : 1 1 ; 31 : 17. 

29. Does this mean a cessation of God's activity? 

No. For this would be in contradicition to His life, 
and we read 

1 John 5:17 — "And Jesus answered, My Father worketh even until now, 
and I work." 

The reference is to a change of work. Creation 
ceases. God's activity is henceforth in the sphere of 
Providence, and, except where the new Order of Re- 
demption intervenes, through second causes. God's rest 
is, therefore, only a change in His mode of work. He 
no longer creates, but sustains and concurs with things 
created, yet so as not to exclude, when He so wishes, His 
miraculous activity. 

30. What can be said of an alleged conflict between 
Science and Revelation on this article? 

Between true Science and Revelation, there can be no 
conflict, for the true in the natural, and the true in the 



Chap. IV.] creation. 65 

supernatural, cannot be contradictory. But when the 
facts of the natural world are elevated to the position of 
a standard by which the supernatural is to be decided, 
Science passes beyond its own limits, and ceases to be 
true science (see Chapter I, 32). When, on the other 
hand, some theologians push incidental allusions to na- 
tural events in the language and according to the popular 
conceptions of the age in which a book of Holy Scripture 
is written, to the position of an integral part of Revelation 
itself, they also sometimes imagine a conflict of Science, 
with Revelation, where no such conflict exists. 

31. Explain this more fully. 

Where sceptical scientists and some well-meaning 
champions of Revelation agree in maintaining that it is 
an important part of Holy Scripture, that the earth does 
not move, and hold that the Ptolemaic System of the Uni- 
verse is essential to belief in Revelation, they should be 
reminded that the language of every day life that "the 
sun rises" and "sets," is not an untruth, but only de- 
scribes a real fact from the standpoint of the ordinary 
spectator, although not from that of astronomical obser- 
vation. The most common facts in nature would be 
unintelligible to all except those technically educated, if 
they were always described in scientific terminology ; and 
if so stated, would have been without meaning in the age 
when the Holy Scriptures were written. 

32. What other caution must be observed? 

The rash acceptance of scientific hypotheses as though 
they were final. The theories of one generation of learned 
men in regard to the natural world, are ridiculed by their 
successors in the next. In the middle of the nineteenth 
cenairy, the Biblical account of Creation was attacked 
because it taught the unity of the human race, while only 
a few decades later, the same account was criticised be- 
cause of its antagonism to the Darwinian theory of evo- 



66 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap: IV. 

lution of all forms of life from a common source. One 
generation attacks the Biblical account of creation because 
it teaches that light existed before the sun was created; 
a later generation learnedly treats of the luminous effects 
produced by electricity generated from the friction of an 
assumed "star dust." 

33. To zvhat should this lead? 

To modesty in pressing the claims of "science" as well 
as to moderation on the part of students of Scripture in 
regarding any thoroughly established fact as capable of 
affecting the truth of Revelation. 

34. State some of the useless controversies that have 
been waged? 

Such, for instance, as to whether the "day" of the Bib- 
lical account of Creation, be the natural day of twenty- 
four hours, as we measure time, or a long period, ac- 
cording" to 2 Peter 3 : 8, "One day is with the Lord as a 
thousand years." Another is as to whether Gen. 1 : 7 
teaches as an article of faith that there is an immense 
reservoir somewhere above the clouds. Kindred to this 
is the question as to whether the world was created in 
the spring or the autumn. It would be just as pertinent 
for New Testament students to enter into learned discus- 
sions concerning the words that introduce the Sermon on 
the Mount as given by Luke (Chap. 6: 20), "He lifted up 
his eyes on his disciples," instead of treating of the dis- 
course of the Master. Various theories might be sug- 
gested as to how it were possible and how impossible for 
one "to lift up" his own eyes. Intense literalists could 
insist that "to lift" must mean to apply one's hands to 
an object, and that any other conception is heretical ; and 
sceptics might urge the same as an argument for the re- 
jection of the entire record. It is so easy to be diverted 
by accidentals, and to overlook the essentials of Holy 
Scripture. 



Chap. V.] providence. 67 

35. What method has been used to explain some ap- 
parent difficulties? 

The suggestion of Augustine by which the first verse 
of Genesis refers to an original creation which had fallen 
into chaos before the events described in the succeeding 
verses occurred. Then, some urge, the description pro- 
ceeds as the events would have appeared to one who had 
been present as day after day recorded something new. 

But all this, and all other hypotheses are speculative, 
and their extended consideration only withdraws atten- 
tion from what is the actual purport of the account taken 
as a whole, to which we have referred in Q. 4. 

36. Does the occurrence of similar accounts in an- 
cient Oriental literature, deciphered from inscriptions on 
tablets or otherwise preserved in any way affect the value 
and force of the Mosaic account? 

No. For the Mosaic account gives the history of 
creation its true religious value, and places it in proper 
relations to the history of the preparation of Redemption 
for mankind. The Christian should ever consider it from 
the standpoint of the fulness of the revelation he has re- 
ceived in Christ. 



CHAPTER V. 

PROVIDENCE. 

1. What is Providence? 

God's administration of created things. 

2. Hozv is it related to Creation? 

Since Creation gives being, and Providence preserves 
and directs it to its end, the latter is only the continuation 
of the former. Hence Scripture frequently joins them. 

Ps. 121:2, 3, 4 — "My help cometh from Jehovah, who made heaven and 
earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved, he that keepeth thee will 
not slumber. Behold he that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep." 
So also Ps. 146:5-10; Acts 17:24-28. 



68 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. V. 

3. Against zvhat errors must it be constantly main- 
tained? 

Those of Epicureans and Deists, who acknowledge a 
Creator, but teach that all things occur by the operation 
of forces implanted in Nature from the creation, as 
though, to use a figure of Augustine, God were a ship- 
builder who delivers the vessel, when finished, into other 
hands, and has for it no further care, or a carpenter who 
erects a house, and then entirely relinquishes it to its 
owner. 

4. What proofs can be given from Scripture for the 
reality of Providence? 

It is found or presupposed on every page. Only a few 
passages need be cited. 

Matt. 5:45 — "Your Father who is in heaven maketh his sun to rise on 
the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and unjust." 

Matt. 6:26 — "Your heavenly Father feedeth them." Matt. 6:30 — "If God 
so clothe the grass of the field which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the 
oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" 

1 Peter 5:7 — "Casting all your anxiety upon him; for he careth for you." 
Acts 17:28 — "In him we live and move and have our being." 
Heb. 1 :3 — "Upholding all things by the word of his power." 

5. Are there other arguments that might be cited? 

(a) It is involved in our conception of the Divine At- 
tributes, as the Goodness, Wisdom, Power, and Justice 
of God. His Goodness implies His constant communica- 
tion of blessings to those He has created. What sort of 
Wisdom would it be to create a universe and leave it? 
Or is it consistent with Omnipotence to limit its sphere 
to the beginning, instead of deeming it coextensive with 
the entire sphere of derived being? So also, as supremely 
just, He can allow no punishment to be inflicted unde- 
servedly, or reward to be given without merit. 

(b) From the constancy of Nature, and the perpetuity 
of creatures amidst the changes which centuries bring 
with them. 

(c) From the adaptation of creatures to their place, 



Chap. V.] providence. 69 

and of parts and functions of creatures to their per- 
petuity and welfare. 

(d) From the general purpose of human history, which 
everywhere shows divine purpose directed towards a 
given end. The rise and fall of empires, the wonderful 
preservation of the Christian Church against the plots of 
enemies and the indifference of its friends, etc. 

6. With zvhat objects is Providence occupied ? 

With all. Nothing is so great as to be beyond it. For 
angels are beneath its control (Ps. 91:11; Heb. 1:14; 
1 Thess. 4:16). Nor is anything so small and unim- 
portant as not to have a place in its plans. For it has to 
do with young ravens (Ps. 147:9), sparrows (Malt. 
10:29), frogs and vermin (Ex. 8:13,18), lilies and 
grass (Matt. 6:28,30), the hairs of our heads (Matt. 
10:30), our tears (Ps. 56:8). 

7. What error does this disprove? 

The modified casualism of Jerome who taught that it 
was beneath God's Majesty to regard the humbler crea- 
tures. With God the distinction of great and small that 
obtains among men disappears. 

8. What practical application of this universality and 
particularity of Providence is made by Holy Scripture? 

The doctrine that it is not simply the life of each in- 
dividual that is regarded, but that, in each individual life, 
each stage and step are explicitly and separately con- 
sidered. 

9. Cite proofs. 

(a) As to the beginning of man's life, Providence is 
described, as active in man's conception. 

Ps. 139:15, 16 — "My frame was not hidden from thee when I was made 
in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine 
eyes did see my unformed substance, and in thy book they were all writt?n, 
even the days that were ordained for me." Job 10:8 — "Thy hands have 
framed me and fashioned me." 



JO A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. V. 

And in his birth. 

Ps. 71:6 — "By thee have I been holden from the womb; thou art he that 
took me out of my mother's bowels." 

(b) As to the progress of man's life. 
Food. 

Ps. 145:15 — "The eyes of all wait upon thee,- and thou givest them their 
meat in due season." 

Undertakings. 

Prov. 20:24 — "A man's goings are of Jehovah. How then can man under- 
stand his way?" 

Calling in life. 

Jer. 1:5 — "Before thou earnest out of the womb, I sanctified thee: I have 
appointed thee a prophet unto the nations." 

Marriage. 

Prov. 19:14 — "A prudent wife is from Jehovah." 

Children. 

Ps. 127:3 — "The fruit of the womb is his reward." 

Protection from danger. 

Ps. 127:1 — "Except Jehovah keep the city, the watchman waketh but in 
vain." 

Protection from diseases. 

Ps. 91:3 — "He will deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from 
the deadly pestilence." 

(c) As to the end of life. 

Job. 14:5 — "His days are determined; the number of his months is with 
thee; and thou hast appointed his bounds, that he cannot pass." 

Ps. 139:16 — "The days that were ordained for me when as yet there was 
none of them." 

10. Does this mean that God has set limits to man's 
life and otherwise determined its details irrespective of 
any agency of man himself? 

God's Providence, comprehending all the circumstances 
of man's course and the manner in which in every future 
contingency man would exercise his freedom, does not 
absolutely exclude man's agency. There are limits be- 
yond which man has no freedom. Since the fall no one 
by any compliance with divinely-appointed conditions can 
reach the age of a thousand years. Human strength has 
its utmost limits (Ps. 90: 10). But within these limits it 
is God's will that man's free agency be a factor, according 



Chap. V.] providence. 71 

to which the period which God would otherwise have ap- 
pointed may be abbreviated (Ps. 55:23), or lengthened 
(Eph. 6:3), by His Providential activity. Accordingly, 
theologians distinguish between "the natural" and "the 
preternatural limits of life," and distinguish the latter into 
"the limit of grace" and "the limit of wrath." 'The limit 
of grace," however, does not always indicate a lengthen- 
ing of life. Sometimes the abbreviation of life is a blessing. 

Is. 57:1 — "None considering that the righteous is taken away from the 
evil to come." 

11. Is it, therefore, absolutely necessary that every one 
die at the particular time and by the particular disease 
which proves fatal? 

No. For such doctrine would deny the efficacy of 
prayer, and the truth of God's promises with respect to 
obedience, and of His threats with respect to disobedi- 
ence. The preternatural limit of life is always hypothet- 
ical, including the condition of godliness or ungodliness, 
and the use or contempt of means. 

12. But if Providence is occupied zvith all things, does 
this mean that it has something to do zvith the wicked 
deeds of men? 

Undoubtedly. For while God gives them no aid, He 
foreknows them, sustains the nature that sins, permits 
them, limits them and overrules them for good. 

13. What acts are comprised in Providence? 
Three. Of these two are immanent, or occurring 

within God, Foreknowledge and Predetermination; and 
one is transient, viz., the execution of what has been pre- 
determined. 

14. But does not this imply succession in God? 

No, for the order is anthropological, in order to enable 
us, by the analogy of what occurs in man, to distinguish 
what must always be kept separate in our consideration 
of God. 



*J2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. V. 

15. How is the Foreknowledge to be distinguished 
from the P redetermination f 

Foreknowledge comprises all things, bad as well as 
good. But Predetermination pertains only to what is 
good. 

16. Can anything that God has foreknown occur other- 
wise than He has foreknown it? 

No, for He is omniscient. 

17. Must not His foreknowledge, therefore, he the 
cause of the events foreknown? 

By no means. For God foreseeing the end from the 
beginning is, in those things He has left to human liberty, 
determined, in His foreknowledge, by the future decision 
of man. The event does not depend upon God's fore- 
knowledge, but God's foreknowledge depends upon the 
event. The foreknowledge of God is the record of the 
result of the exercise of free choice by the creature ; for 
to God the future is ever present. If the free choice of 
the creature were otherwise than it is, God's foreknowl- 
edge of the event would differ. The foreknowledge of 
God no more brings necessity to things foreknown, than 
my sight of a house has built it. 

18. How is the execution of what has been predeter- 
mined effected? 

In three ways, viz., by preservation, concurrence and 
government. 

19. What is Preservation? 

Since God's presence pervades all things, their exist- 
ence continues by His omnipresent power. Were He to 
withdraw His hand, they would return to nothingness. 
"The continued existence of creatures is more dependent 
upon God's presence, than rays of light upon the sun" 
(Calovius). 

Col. 1:17 — "By him all things consist." 

Heb. 1:3 — "Upholding all things by the word of his power." 

Acts 17:28 — "In him we live and move and have our being." 



Chap. V.] providence. 73 

Ps. 104:29, 30 — "Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest 
away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth 
thy spirit, they are created." 

This preservation, beyond individuals, belongs also to 
species. Generation after generation passes away, indi- 
viduals die, but their places are supplied, and the race 
remains. 

20. What is Concurrence? 

Nothing, either great or small occurs, without God's 
active co-operation (Job 10:8,9; 1 Cor. 12:6; Acts 17: 
28). Applied to human acts, this implies: 

(a) A certain degree of liberty with respect to man's 
free will. For otherwise God would not concur or co- 
operate, but would only operate. 

(b) The activity of God in and through that of the 
creature. The effect is produced neither by God alone, 
nor by the creature alone, but, at the same time, by God 
and the creature. God is the First Cause ; creatures are 
second causes. God acts through second causes, not only 
by creating and sustaining them, but especially by im- 
parting His energy to all their actions. 

21. What qualification must be attached to the ex- 
planation of this concurrence? 

The abuse of the energy communicated by God, in its 
application to sinful ends, comes entirely from the crea- 
ture. This abuse God permits ; for otherwise, the free- 
dom of man's will would be denied. God concurs with 
the effect, not with the defect of an action. 

22. What is meant by Government? 
God's control of all acts of second causes. 

23. In what different ways does this occur? 

(a) By permission. God sometimes places no insu- 
perable barrier in the way of those abusing their free will. 

Ps. 81:12 — "I let them go after the stubbornness of their heart, that they 
might walk in their own counsels." 

Acts 14:16 — "Who suffered all the nations to walk in their own ways." 
Rom. 1:24, 28 — God permits even when he does not will what is permitted. 



74 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. V. 

(b) By hindrance. God sometimes prevents the 
actions of creatures from reaching the end they would 
otherwise attain by the natural exercise of the powers He 
has allotted them, or by the use of their free wills. ' An 
illustration is seen, where, in Dan. 3: 21, the fire did not 
harm the three faithful confessors of the only true God, 
or where, in Num. 2.2.'. 11, Balaam's purpose to curse Is- 
rael is thwarted, or, in 2 Kings 7 : 6, where the counsels 
of the Syrians are thrown into confusion. 

(c) By direction. All actions of creatures, good and 
bad, are guided to the ends which He has designed. 
God has a plan ; and every act of man's will is made to 
contribute to its ultimate result. He brings forth good 
out of evil, and converts evil into good. Saul went forth 
to seek asses, and, through God's direction, returned a 
king. The sons of Jacob sold Joseph into slavery, who, 
as governor of Egypt, became the means of saving the 
entire family from famine. 

Gen. 50:20 — "Ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good." 

The Jews crucified Christ, and through His death, sal- 
vation is prepared for the race, and the highest glory re- 
sulted for him whom they hated (Acts 4: 27, 28). 

(d) By determination. God appoints certain limits 
to the strength and activity of creatures (Job 1:12; 
2:6; 1 Chron. 21 : 27). 

24. Is Providence occupied with all things in the same 
way? 

No. God disposes events in one way with respect to 
the good and in another with respect to the wicked. The 
former are the objects of His especial care and guidance. 
Providence considered with respect to them is sometimes 
called "Special Providence" (Matt. 10:31; Heb. 1:14; 
Deut. 32:9- J 5; Ps - 33- 18; 37: 19,25; 91: n). 

25. What is meant by the distinction between Ordi- 
nary and, Extraordinary Providence ? 



Chap. V.] providence. 75 

Ordinary Providence designates God's regular opera- 
lion through second causes. Extraordinary, refers to His 
activity either independently of second causes, or through 
these causes in an unusual way. 

26. What other term designates Ordinary Providence? 

"Law of Xature." When second causes have been ob- 
served to act uniformly under given circumstances and 
conditions, this uniform method is called "a law." Day 
has been found to follow night, and summer winter, with- 
out exception, in the experience of mankind ; and, hence, 
we deduce the rule or law, according to which all our 
expectations conform. 

27. What caution must be observed in the tracing of 
"laws''? 

The widening of experience often shows that the 
method accepted as law is not absolutely uniform, but 
changes under conditions that had not been observed be- 
fore. The inhabitant of the tropics may know nothing of 
the solidification of water at a low degree of temperature. 
An uneducated man would deny the possibility of light- 
ing a candle with a piece of ice ; and yet the chemist can 
do it by attaching to the wick a pellet of sodium. Super- 
ficial observation shows that cold contracts objects; but 
wider observation shows that from 39 degrees Fahren- 
heit until the freezing point, the law changes. Only a few 
years ago, the possibility of holding a conversation half 
way across a continent would have been derided, as would 
also have been the assertion that the eve could, under 
certain circumstances, penetrate a human body and see 
objects on the other side. A so-called "law" is not, there- 
fore, God's ordinary way of working; but it is an infer- 
ence based upon man's observation. It is the result at- 
tained by generalization from the widest sphere of facts 
that have fallen beneath the experience of the one who 
undertakes to state the law, 



j6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. V. 

28. But if human experience were to haze all the de- 
tails, so far as the past and the present are concerned, 
could God be bound in the future to the rules underlying 
such details? 

This would make God the creature and subject of law, 
and would virtually deny that there is a God. For God 
is nothing, if not supreme and sovereign. He who has 
fixed the so-called "laws of nature," could just as readily 
have ordained other laws, varying from them, and, when 
and where He pleases, He can act through them extraor- 
dinarily, or dispense with them altogether. 

29. What, then, is extraordinary Providence ? 

A miracle. It may be defined as a suspension of a' law 
of nature, i. e., an activity that varies from the mode that 
has heretofore fallen under man's observation. Second 
causes may be employed in an extraordinary way, so 
that their activity may be accelerated or retarded ; or God 
may act without them. 

30. Upon what then does the possibility of a miracle 
depend ? 

Upon the freedom of God. "God works miracles in 
order to testify that He is omnipotent, and above nature. 
The ordinary course of things testifies that Nature has an 
Architect, who is wise, kind, righteous, viz., God. But 
He acts outside of and beyond this order, as when He 
raised the dead, or made the sun stand still, or turned it 
back, in order that we may know that He is Almighty, 
and stronger than the whole world, and that He can 
bring aid from outside of the natural order" (Melanch- 
thon ) . 

31. Upon what does the necessity of a miracle depend f 
It stands and falls with the necessity of Revelation ; for 

Revelation is a miracle. The order of Nature, violated 
and disarranged by sin, is restored by God's working over 
and beyond the sphere of purely natural causes. The two 



Chap. V.] providence. 77 

fundamental miracles are Creation and Redemption. The 
working out of what was introduced by Creation having 
been interrupted by sin, every miracle, since the fall, 
points to and centers in Redemption. The necessity for 
a miracle was introduced by sin. A low view of the ex- 
tent and significance of sin results in the denial of the 
necessity of the miraculous. Where human guilt is 
passed over lightly, the need of a Redeemer is depreciated. 
The denial of the possibility of the miraculous is 
grounded, therefore, not so much in intellectual, as in 
moral difficulties. The strongest arguments are those 
which appeal more to the conscience than to the under- 
standing. 

32. What is the great proof of the reality of miracles? 
The Person of Christ, the miracle of miracles (1 Tim. 

3 : 16) ; and next to this, the regenerate life of the child 
of God, proceeding from that of Christ ( 1 Cor. 6 : 11). 

33. From what standpoints is the possibility of mir- 
acles attacked? 

(a) From that of Atheism, which in its denial of God, 
necessarily denies that His Supreme will orders all things, 
and also makes exception to this order. The most wide- 
spread form of Atheism, and the one whose attacks on 
miracles is most frequently heard, is Materialism, with its 
assertion that there is neither God, nor mind, nor pur- 
pose in the universe. 

(b) From that of Deism, with its conception that when 
the clock is wound up it henceforth runs forever of itself, 
and that God acts in nature exclusively through the forces 
He once placed there. The world, according to it, has 
been so framed, that there can never be a variation from 
what ordinarily occurs. What ordinarily occurs must al- 
ways occur ; and what ordinarily does not occur, can 
never occur. Such are its postulates. 

(c) From that of Pantheism, where God is degraded to 
a mere personification of the powers of Nature. 



78 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. V. 

34. Does the exposure of pretended miracles in any 
way affect the argument for the miracles recorded and 
prophesied in Scripture? 

They only point to faith in the miraculous as grounded 
in the very nature of man's mind. What they abuse and 
mislead, finds its true end and satisfaction within the 
limits fixed in Holy Scripture. The detection of counter- 
feits does. not disprove the value of genuine coins. 

35. But have not miracles been wrought by Satan and 
his adherents? 

The magicians in Egypt wrought wonders (Ex. 7: 11, 
12), and the false prophet in Rev. 19: 20. The Israelites, 
in Deut. 13 : 1-5, are warned against being misled by 
errorists notwithstanding their signs and wonders. These 
may have been nothing more than inexplicable facts tran- 
scending the experience of their witnesses, or as super- 
natural power may be conceded temporarily to the wicked 
in order that, in the conflict, God may be glorified, by 
counterbalancing and overcoming their very highest ef- 
forts and achievements by the still greater supernatural 
power with which He interferes for man's deliverance. 
Every so-called Satanic miracle may be interpreted, how- 
ever, by a more than usual acquaintance with purely nat- 
ural resources, as though some one were to appear among 
uncivilized people and would use wireless telegraphy. 

36. Are miracles then evidences of the truth of the 
cause for which they are wrought? 

Not in themselves. A miracle attracts attention, awak- 
ens reflection, leads to investigation, and brings the cause 
proclaimed to the test of Holy Scripture (Gal. 1:8.) 
"Miracles are seals of doctrine ; as, therefore, a seal torn 
from a letter proves nothing, so miracles, without doc- 
trine, are not valid" (Gerhard). See Chapter XIII, 21-23. 

37. What distinction was made by the Scholastics? 
Into miracula, or miracles properly so called, and mira- 



Chap. V.] providence. 79 

bilia, or apparent miracles. The former are deeds utterly 
surpassing natural powers, and wrought, therefore, only 
by God (Ps. 136:4). The latter were explained as 
wrought by the application of natural agents in a mys- 
terious way, so as to excite astonishment, and to be re- 
garded as miraculous. 

38. Into what two classes have miracles been divided? 

Into Miracles of Nature, and Miracles of Grace. The 
former were wrought by God in matters subject to sense, 
as when Christ raised the dead, and stilled the tempest, 
or when He Himself arose from the tomb. The latter are 
wrought within men for their salvation, or pertain to 
man's relation to God. The former are subordinate to the 
latter. 

John 14:12 — "Greater works than these shall he do, because 1 go unto 
the Father." 

The awakening of one born in sin to spiritual life is 
more wonderful than the quickening of Lazarus. All 
external miracles wrought by Christ and His Apostles 
were for the purpose of bringing men under the influence 
of spiritual power to justify, regenerate and glorify them. 

39. What particular practical application is to be made 
of the doctrine of Providence? 

It leads to a correct estimate of second causes. On the 
one hand, they are to be diligently used, as the ordinary 
means through which God communicates His gifts and 
blessings (i Thess. 4: 11; 2 Cor. 3: 10, 11; Matt. 4:7). 
On the other hand, we are not to rest in them ; but, in our 
faithful discharge of the duties of our callings we may 
be assured that God has ways of caring for us and 
of rendering our work effective far above all we can ask 
or think (Ps. 127 : 1, 2 ; Matt. 4:4; 6 : 25-39 ; Phil. 4:6; 
1 Peter 5:7). 



80 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VL 

CHAPTER VI. 

OF ANGELS. 

1. Why is the doctrine of Angels treaied at this place ? 
Because after treating of Creation and Providence, we 

consider the chief creatures of God, Angels and Men, and 
the chief instruments of God's Providential activity, 
Angels, 

2. Why is so Utile prominence given it in the Confes- 
sions of the Church? 

Because with the pfift of the Holv Ghost at Pentecost, 
and His abiding presence with the Church, the conscious- 
ness of the favor and nearness of God in Christ, com- 
pletely subordinates their agency in the heart of the 
Christian. With the fuller appropriation of assurance of 
faith and of adoption as children of God, which entered 
with the study of St. Paul at the Reformation period, the 
chief allusions in the Confessions are in the cautions given 
against an abuse of the doctrine. 

3. Is the doctrine, therefore, unimportant? 

By no means. But the Reformation had to protest 
against the excessive attention that had been previously 
accorded it. 

4. What are angels? 

Pure and complete spirits, created by God, to be His 
agents in the administration of creation. 

5. Why do ive call them "pure" or "complete spirits"? 

In distinction from men who need bodies for the com- 
pletion of their being. Man, between death and the res- 
urrection, exists without body, but it is an incomplete con- 
dition endured as a result of sin. 

6. Arc angels the only pure or complete spirits? 
God is such. But angels differ from God in that while 

He is an infinite, they are finite spirits. 



Chap. VI.] OF ANGELS. 81 

7. But are not angels sometimes described as having 
bodies? 

Yes, but these bodies are assumed temporarily, and 
cast aside when the purpose for which they have been 
used has been accomplished. They have no more identity 
with the personality of angels than the pen has with the 
writer, or the needle with the seamstress. 

8. What do we know of their creation? 

Nothing more than the fact (Col. 1: 16). The entire 
absence of any allusion to the creation of angels in the 
Mosaic account shows that the record does not aim to be 
exhaustive. They are described as being in existence, if 
not before the creation of the earth, at any rate cotem- 
poraneously with it. 

Job 34:4, 7 — "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth, 
when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for 
joy?" 

That "sons of God" in the Book of Job are angels 
is proved from Chap. 1 : 6. 

9. What are the attributes common to Good and Bad 
Angels? 

Those belonging to complete finite spirits. They are 
simple or irresolvable into parts ; invisible except through 
an assumed form; immutable so far as inner physical 
changes are concerned; immortal, i. e., dependency upon 
God ; and illocal, or independent of ordinary spatial rela- 
tions. They have extraordinary intelligence, a free will, 
great power, limitation with respect to presence, but abil- 
ity to change this presence with extraordinary swiftness. 

10. Hozv as to their number? 

Dan. 7:10 — "Thousands of thousands ministered unto him, and ten thou- 
sand times ten thousand stood before him." 

Matt. 26:53 — "He shall even now send me more than twelve legions of 
angels?" 

11. How many states of angels are there? 

Three. The State of Grace, the State of Glory and the 
State of Misery. 



&2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VI. 

The State of Grace is that in which they were all ori- 
ginally created equally wise and holy, and for eternal 
happiness (Gen. i : 31 ; John 8: 44). 

The State of Glory is that in which the angels who 
abode in the wisdom and holiness in which they were 
created, have been admitted to the clear sight of God, and 
perpetually enjoy His goodness (Matt. 18:10; Ps. 16:11). 

The State of Misery is the sad condition of the angels 
who, of their own accord and by the abuse of their free 
will, departed from God (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). 

12. What differences in these three states wiih re- 
spect to the possibility of sinning? 

In the State of Grace they were able either to sin or 
not to sin {posse peccare aut non peccare). 

In the State of Glory they are not able to sin (non 
posse peccare). 

In the State of Misery they cannot refrain from sin- 
ning (non posse non peccare). 

13. What ground is there for affirming the impecca- 
bility of the Good Angels ? 

The godly, after the resurrection, are said to be im- 
mortal, and "equal unto the angels" (Luke 20:36) ; and 
the Lord's Prayer refers to the perfection with which 
God's will is done in heaven (Matt 6: 10). 

14. But is such impeccability consistent with free- 
dom of the zuillf 

Yes. Not to be able to sin is the highest degree of free- 
dom. Such is the freedom of God. To be raised not only 
aoove all imperfection, but especially above all liability to 
suffer from an imperfection, is the highest perfection. 
(See Chapter XXIII, 29, 30.) 

15. What was the ground for the exaltation of the 
Good Angels to this higher stage? 

No absolute decree of God, for it was based upon the 
condition of merit. Not .the merit of Christ, for He 



Chap. V-L] of angels. 83 

came to seek that which was lost (Luke 19: 10) while the 
Good Angels were never lost ; and He is the "Mediator 
between God and men" (1 Tim 2:5), not between God 
and angels. Nor was it any merit of their own ; since 
they were under obligation, in virtue of their creation, to 
serve God to their utmost power. The sole ground, 
therefore, is the unmerited goodness of God. 

16. What of the knowledge of angels ? 

When Christ wished to state the impossibility of know- 
ing a certain event, He made it very emphatic by saying 
that not even the angels in heaven know it (Mark 13: 
32). Thus He declared both the greatness and the limi- 
tations of their knowledge. Only God knows the secrets 
of men's hearts (1 Kings 8: 39). Not only is there much 
beyond which they have desired to know (1 Peter 1 : 12), 
but, in God's own time, this is made known to them by 
revelation (Eph. 3:10). 

17. What of their power? 

The destruction of Sennacherib's army of 185,000 
men, in one night, by a single angel (2 Kings 19: 35), is 
a sufficient proof. They are said to be "mighty in 
strength" (Ps. 103:7), "angels of his power" (2 Thess. 

1:7). 

18. What are the works of Good Angels? 

(a) The adoring worship of God (Dan. 7: 10; see Q 
10 ; Is. 6:2; Rev. 4:8; Matt. 6 : 10) . 

(b) The service of the godly. 

Heb. 1:14 — "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service 
for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" 

Ps. 91:11 — "He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all 
thy ways." 

19. Has each child of God a guardian angel? 

It is going too far to derive such a doctrine from Matt 
18: 10 and Acts 12: 15. The godly are frequently com- 
forted with the assurance that they are protected not by 
an angel, but by angels. See Ps. 91 : n, cited above. A 



84 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VI. 

number of angels — sometimes a host — attend one man 
(Gen. 32:2; 2 Kings 6:16; Luke 16:22), and -rejoice 
over the repentance of but one sinner (Luke 15: 10). 

20. Within zvhat sphere do they serve \he godly ? 
Within that of the natural world. They are revealed as 

active at peculiarly critical epochs in human life (Matt. 
1:10; 4:11; Acts 10:3; Luke 16:22). There is no 
evidence that they work otherwise than through second 
causes. Their connection with the Kingdom of Grace is 
only for the disposition of Providential agencies in its 
service. The mysteries of incarnation and redemption 
were beyond their grasp (Eph. 3:9). It is not their office 
to effect any of those spiritual changes within man, which 
the Holy Spirit works through the word of the Gospel. 
Angels bring deliverance from bodily dangers, but they 
are no way revealed as regenerating or sanctifying. 

21. Where is their activity especially prominent? 
At every great epoch of God's revelation of Himself in 

deed. At Creation (Job 38:7) ; the Giving of the Law 
(Deut. 33 : 2 ; Gal. 3 : 19) ; the Incarnation (Luke 1 : 20; 
2:9,13); the Temptation (Matt. 4:11); the Passion 
(Luke 22:43) 5 the Resurrection (John 20: 12) ; the As- 
cension (Acts 2:11), and the Final Judgment (Matt. 
25:31; Mark 13:27; Matt. 13:41,49; 1 Thess. 4:16; 
2 Thess. 1:7). 

22. Is this activity confined to individuals? 

No. It is extended to nations (Dan. 10), and to the 
assemblies of Christians (1 Cor. 11:10; 1 Tim. 5:21; 
Eph. 3 : 10). 

2^. Are we to invoke angels for their aid? 

This is forbidden by 

Col. 1:18 — "Let no man rob you of your prize by worshipping of the 
angels." 

Rev. 19:10 — "And I fell down before his feet to worship him. And he 
saith unto me, See thou do it not: I am a fellow-servant with thee and 
with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God." Cf. 
22:8, 9. It also conflicts with the sole mediatorship of Christ (Rom. 8:34; 
1 Tim. 2:5; 1 John 2:1). 



Chap. VI.] OF ANGELS. 85 

24. But ere there not several kinds of worship, one 
of which belongs to God alone, and another also to angels? 

For this argument of the Greek and Roman churches, 
there is no Scriptural warrant. We indeed should honor 
and revere them as God's ministers, and thank Him for 
what He effects for us through their agency ; but this is 
far different from worshiping them or invoking their in- 
tercession (1 Cor. 11 : 10; 1 Tim. 5 : 21 ; Luke 15 : 7, 10). 

25. Are there no: instances zvhere zvorship is actually 
accorded an angel ? 

If such passages as Gen. 18: 1-3 actually accord such 
worship, it is because it is given either to the "Angel of 
the Lord" as the uncreated Angel, who is none less than 
Jehovah Himself, or to the Angel, as the representative 
of Jehovah.* 

26. What different orders cf Good Angels are there? 

Col. 1:16 — "Things invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principali- 
ties, or powers." 

Rom. 8:38 — "Nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers." 
Eph. 3:10 — "The principalities and powers in heavenly places." 
1 Thess. 4:16 — "The voice of the archangel." 
Jude 9 — "Michael the archangel." 

2J. What higher orders appear in the Old Testament? 

Cherubim and Seraphim, distinguished from angels 
properly so called, in that while angels go forth as mes- 
sengers, they stand in the presence of God. The Cheru- 
bim are described four-winged. Their appearance indi- 
cates a special divine presence. They are the attendants 
of the divine glory as it descends to man (Ps. 18:10; 
80 : 1 ; 99 : 1 ; 2 Sam. 22 : 11 ; Is. 37 : 16). The Seraphim 
are described six-winged and dwell in the secret glory of 
God. They do not descend, but are manifested only when 
man is raised to contemplate the glory of God (Is. 6:2-6; 
Rev. 4: 7 sqq.). 

28. By what figure is the brilliancy of their endow- 
ments indicated? 



*The former view is advocated at length by Kurtz, "History of O, T. 
Covenant" I, Sec. 50. 



86 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VI. 

They are sometimes called stars (Job 38 : 7 ; Ps. 148:3) 
and compared to lightning (Luke 10: 18). 

29. What problem meets us when we consider the 
fall of some angels ? 

That of the origin of evil. 

30. Is it explicable? 

No. The farthest we can go is to learn that it was 
God's will that the perfections with which angels were 
originally endowed should be increased and developed 
in their struggle against evil. To this end, therefore, 
they were endowed with a will which was able to sin. 

31. Did the sin of the Bad Angels come from any ex- 
ternal source? 

No, but from the will of beings originally pure and 
holy spontaneously turning from God. 

John 8:44 — "When he speakelh a lie, he speaketh of his own." 

32. Did i: come from any lack of divine grace which 
those who did not fall enjoyed? 

This would make God the author of their sin. 

33. What was the form of the sin whereby they fell? 
Because of the motive presented Eve for her sin (Gen. 

3:5), and of the final temptation addressed our Lord by 
Satan (Adatt. 4:9), many have thought that it was pride.* 
The root of all pride, however, is unbelief. 

34. What zvas the order of their fall? 

First, the fall of a chief, called Satan, "the adversary, " 
or the Devil, "the accuser," or "the Prince of the power 
of the air" (Eph. 2:2) ; and through his instrumentality, 
the fall of the rest. For John 8 : 44 calls him a "mur- 
derer from the beginning," and Luke 11: 15, "the prince 
of the demons," while Matt. 25:41 and Rev. 12:7 refer 
to the rest as his "angels." 

*Ecclesiasticus 10:13: "For pride is the beginning of sin," was cited by 
the old writers as a proof. 



Chap. VI.] OF ANGELS. 87 

35. What effect had their fall upon {heir angelic en- 
dowments? 

A contraction of their knowledge and intellectual pene- 
tration ; for while an extraordinary knowledge of super- 
natural things remains, the effort of the devil to lead 
Christ astray by temptation, and the putting into the 
heart of Judas the thought of betraying Him, and there- 
by of preparing Satan's own ruin (i Cor. 2:7,8), show 
his ignorance. 

A great limitation also of their power. While accord- 
ing to Matt. 12:29; Luke 11:21; Eph. 6:12; 1 Peter 
5 : 8, this power is still such as is not to be overlooked or 
despised, except by a special permission of God it can- 
not harm (Job 1 : 12 ; 2 : 6; Matt. 8:31). In Jude 8, this 
limitation is expressed under the figure of "chains," 
whereby they are confined until the Day of Judgment. 
This power God knows how to turn to His own purpose. 
1 Tim. 2: 25, 26 speaks of those who are taken captive by 
Satan unto the will of God. Of this the entire drama of 
the Book of Job is an example. 

Their freedom of will was also limited. Henceforth 
they can will nothing but sin. Their freedom has to do 
only with a choice between particular evils. 

36. What disposition of God have they incurred? 

His irreconcilable wrath (2 Peter 2:5; Jude v. 6; 
Heb. 2: 16). 

37. What of their disposition tozvards God and His 
creatures other than themselves? 

Knowing that there is a God (James 2: 19), that He 
is almighty, and that, while infinitely good to the Good 
Angels and men, He is and will be to eternity severe to- 
wards them, not only are they without love, but they fear 
and hate Him with all the powers of their nature. This 
hatred extends to all whom He loves and for whom He 
cares. Like those among men whom they inspire and 



88 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VII. 

incite, they "live in malice and envy, hateful and hating 
one another." Whatever harmony and co-operation ex- 
ist among them is rooted not in love, but in their desire 
to harm and overthrow the good. 

38. What of their future ? 

Matt. 25:41 — "Eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.'* 
2 Peter 2:4 — "Reserved unto judgment." 

Jude 6 — "Kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment 
of the great day." 

39. Do they know this? 

James 2:19 — "The demons also believe and shudder." 

Matt. 8:29 — Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" 

40. Meanwhile how are they occupied? 

They are intent upon what may bring ruin upon man, 
and dishonor God (Luke 22:31; Eph. 6: 11, 12; 1 Peter 
5 : 8, 9 ; Luke 13 : 16 ; Job 1:12; 1 Cor. 7:5). Their at- 
tacks are directed not only against men individually, but 
are aimed particularly at the Church and its Means of 
Grace (Matt. 13:27; 1 Tim. 4:1,2; 1 Thess. 2:18). 

41. What was demoniacal possession? 

A special temporary bodily possession, permitted by 
God, in New Testament times, particularly those of the 
visible ministry of Christ, as a factor in the struggle of the 
powers of darkness with the Son of God for the control 
of the human race. After principalities and powers were 
spoiled in our Lord's resurrection from the dead, we can 
find no bodily possession like that described in the Gospels. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MAN AS CREATED. 

1. How many states of Man are there? 

Five: The state of Integrity, the state of Corruption, 
the state of Grace, the state of Glory, the state of Misery. 

2. In which of these was man created? 
The state of Integrity. 

3. What place does man hold in creation? 



Chap. VII.] MAN AS CREATED. 89 

According to Gen. i : 26, he is the goal of all the crea- 
tive acts of God. Cf . Ps. 8 : 6-8. 

^. Of how many parts is man composed? 
Of two, viz., Body and Soul or Spirit. 

5. What is the Body? 

The material part of man's nature. 

2 Cor. 5:1 — "The earthly house of this tabernacle." 

6. But does not this imply some amount of impurity? 
In no way. On the contrary, even the bodily and ma- 
terial has a spiritual and eternal significance and destiny. 

1 Cor. 6:19 — "Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." 
Rom. 12:1 — "Present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is your spir- 
itual service." 

1 Cor. 15:44 — "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." 

7. But cannot the soul exist without the body? 

Yes, but only as a consequence and punishment of sin. 
The soul can exist in an abnormal way without body, just 
as the body also can exist with some of its limbs or organs 
removed. "We do not long to become bodiless souls. 
Endowed with bodies here, it is intended we should have 
them also hereafter" (Luthardt, Glaubenslehre). 

8. Is it not often taught, however, that the body is the 
prison of the soul, or its fetter, by which its heavenward 
■flight is checked? 

Such is the teaching of Platonism, and of heathenism 
generally, which fails to interpret aright the fearful sig- 
nificance of death. Death, or the separation of soul and 
body, is not of itself a blessing, but a violence done na- 
ture, and something which conscience declares ought not 
to be. The soul was made for the body, as the body was 
made for the soul, and both together were made for God. 

9. Do all theologians agree that mans nature has but 
tzvo parts? 

On this subject, there are two schools, the Dichotomists 
and the Trichotomists. The former teach as we have said 
above that man's nature has two parts, body and soul or 



9<3 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VII. 

spirit ; the latter that it has three parts, body and soul and 
spirit. The difference is determined by the question as 
to whether soul and spirit be the same part of man's na- 
ture, designated with reference to different relations, or 
whether they be different parts. 

io. Upon zvhal grounds is the distinction betzveen 
"soul" and "spirit," as different parts of mans nature 
based ? 

The seeming contrast between the terms in such pas- 
sages as : 

i Thess. 5:23 — "May your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire." 
Heb. 4:12 — "Piercing to the dividing of soul and spirit." 
1 Cor. 15:44 — "It is sown a psychical body; it is raised a spiritual body." 
Luke 1:46, 47— "My soul doth magnify the Lord; and my spirit hath re- 
joiced in God my Saviour." 

The soul is regarded, therefore, as the immaterial part 
of man's nature which he has in common with the lower 
animals, while the spirit is that which he has in common 
with God and the angels. 

11. By whom was such distinction taught? 

The suggestion came from Plato. It was advocated by 
Justin Martin, Irenaeus, and the Alexandrian school, and 
became the doctrine of the Greek Church. With various 
modifications it has been taught in recent times by Ols- 
hausen, Neander and Meyer ; and elaborated by Delitzsch 
in his "Biblical Psychology." 

12. Why is the theory unsatisfactory? 

Because in a number of passages, "soul" and "spirit" 
are treated as synonyms. If man is described in Matt. 
10:28 as "body and soul," he is described in Eccl. 12:7 
as "body and spirit." If it is the "spirit" in Matt. 2J : 50, 
it is the "soul" in Matt. 20 : 28 ; Acts 20 : 10. 

For this reason, Tertullian, Jerome, Augustine, fol- 
lowed by the theologians of the Western Church, Roman 
Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed,, with only a few ex- 
ceptions, advocate Dichotomy. It appears prominently 



Chap. VIL] MAN AS CREATED. 9 1 

in the Small Catechism : "I believe that He has given to 
me my body and soul;" 

13. May not the two theories be reconciled? 

Yes, by regarding "soul" and "spirit" identical in sub- 
stance, but diverse in relation. When regarded with re- 
spect to earthly relations, i. c, those belonging to the 
world that now is, it is "soul" ; but when referred to the 
heavenly destiny for which God has created and endowed 
and redeemed it, it is "spirit." This is not contradicted 
by the fact that its destiny, even in its earthly environ- 
ment, does not prevent it from being sometimes called 
"soul," as in Matt. 10 : 28. Soul comes from God and 
goes to God, but its activity is through the body. Where 
souls of the departed are mentioned, as in Rev. 6 : 9, their 
former residence in bodies is implied. 

14. What, then, is meant in Heb. 4:12 by "the dividing 
cf soid and spirit'? 

Not the separation of the soul from the spirit, but that 
the all pervasive influence of the Holy Spirit acting 
through the Word leaves no recess of man's nature, how- 
ever secret, or by whatever name called, untouched by its 
operations. 

15. What then is the son! or the spirit? 

Not an etherealized form of matter or force of the 
body, as taught by Materialists ; for nothing is clearer 
than the contrast between "soul and body," and "spirit 
and body" in the passages above cited. But the soul is a 
living, immaterial, simple substance, inhabiting, sustain- 
ing and moving the body. 

16. May it not, then, be identical with the Spirit of 
God? 

This is indeed said to dwell in man (Job 32:8; 33:4). 
But since the two are explicitly distinguished and con- 
trasted in such passages as Rom. 8: 16, 26; 1 Cor. 2: it, 
and man's spirit is sinful and needs the renewing grace of 



92 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VII. 

God (2 Cor. 7:1; Eph. 4:23), they cannot be identical, 
and man's spirit cannot be an emanation of that of God. 
When God dwells in man, it is by the presence of God's 
Spirit within man's spirit, as we learn elsewhere occurs 
in four degrees, viz., the natural life, the Mystical Union, 
(XXII), Inspiration (XXIV, 8), Incarnation (XI, 21 
sqq,), according as it is universal or is more and more 
restricted, until limited to but one instance. 

17. What mode of presence does the soul have in the 
body? 

The answer to this question does not belong properly 
to Theology. As, however, spirit is a simple substance, 
i. e., it is indissoluble or indivisible into parts, the soul 
cannot be conceived of as present in such way that a part 
of the soul is at one part, and another part of the soul at 
another part of the body. This presence of a finite spirit 
in a body has been termed definitive. 

18. Do all men come from one ancestor? 

Acts 17:26 — "He hath made of one every nation of men to dwell on all 
the face of the earth." 

Rom. 5:12 — "Through one man, sin entered into the world, and death 
through sin, and so death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." 

19. Has this ever been questioned? 

No one seems to seriously dispute this at present. The 
whole argument of scientists, advocating the Darwinian 
theory of evolution, is in its favor. But it must not be 
forgotten that, at the middle of the nineteenth century, 
theologians and the few scientists in America who main- 
tained the Unity of the Human Race, were ridiculed as 
singularly unscientific. With great learning, diversity of 
race peculiarities was urged as an irrefutable argument in 
favor of diversity of origin. In recent years, the pendu- 
lum has swung to the other extreme, and the endeavor 
been made to find a common source for all animal life, 
which, then, by the ceaseless struggles of uncounted ages, 
advanced until man was reached. When the Scriptural 



Chap. VII.] MAN AS CREATED. 93 

account of creation is opposed to this theory, it is sum- 
marily discarded as "unscientific," because it has as little 
support for this "scientific" theory, as it had for its now 
thoroughly exploded predecessor. 

20. But were the old school of nineteenth century 
scientists the only opponents of the Unity of the Human 
Race? 

No. The Athenians called themselves Autochthones, 
and boasted of springing from the soil on which they 
lived. The Preadamites, represented by the French theo- 
logian, Peyrere, taught that only Jews had descended 
from Adam, while the Gentiles had been created in pairs, 
male and female, in all parts of the earth. 

21. Are there not other arguments for the Unity of 
the Human Race, beyond the Scriptural argument, zvhich 
are just as strong as those now advanced by compara*- 
tive zoologists? 

Such are : ( I ) The Psychological argument, from the 
identity of the various races of men in processes of 
thought, and of emotions as love and hatred, fear and 
hope. (2) The Linguistic argument, the general laws 
which govern all languages being the same. (3) The 
argument from Comparative Religion. All are respon- 
sive to religious appeals, and capable of religious dispo- 
sitions. There is everywhere the same sense of sin and 
guilt, and the same recognition, with greater or less de- 
gree of intelligence, of a Supreme Being. (4) The cor- 
respondence of the sagas and traditions of races most 
widely removed from one another. 

"According to science the origin of the human race 
from one pair is possible, not to say probable. But what 
Science at least admits, Theology demands upon the 
ground of the holy record of the fact of universal sinful- 
ness" (Kahnis). 



94 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Qiap. VII. 

22. What theories have been advanced to explain 
how, since Adam, souls enter the world? 
There are three theories : 

(a) The Pre-existence theory, advocated by Plato, 
Philo, Origen, Kant, Schelling, Coleridge, Wordsworth, 
Julius Mueller, and, in America, by Edward Beecher. 
All souls, they teach, have existed before, and have been 
condemned to have bodies, because, in this ante-temporal 
state, they have fallen into sin. Occasionally they have 
vague reminiscences of this former blissful condition, and 
the desire to return. 

This theory directly conflicts with the argument of 
Romans V, and the account of Genesis III, besides being 
at variance with what has been taught above concerning 
the body (see 6-8). 

(b) Creationism, advocated by Aristotle, Ambrose, 
Jerome, Pelagius, the Greek Church, the Roman Church, 
most of the theologians of the Reformed Church, there, 
being, however, some prominent recent exceptions (H. 
B. Smith, Shedd, Stearns, Strong), and by John Brenz 
and Calixt among Lutherans. The body alone, they say, 
is propagated from parent to child. With the coming of 
every new soul into the world, there is a new creative act 
of God. A soul is created by God and united with the 
body, and thus inherits the corruption transmitted by the 
parents from Adam. 

Against this, there are the following objections: (i) It 
destroys the unity of human nature, by ascribing parent- 
age alone to the body, and is thus incompatible with the 
inheritance of intellectual gifts and aptitudes and de- 
formities. (2) It materializes sin, since the effect of the 
doctrine is to make sin a subtle physical poison, trans- 
mitted through the inherited body, and not from the soul, 
thus completely reversing the order described by our 
Lord in Matt. 15 : 19, 20. (3) Or if this be denied, it is 



Chap. VII.] MAN AS CREATED. 95 

driven to the alternative of either denying the existence 
of natural depravity, or of holding that it is created by 
God with the soul. 

(c) Traducianism, advocated in a materialistic form by 
Tertullian, but with more discrimination by Athanasius 
and Gregory of Nyssa, and held as a probable theory by 
Augustine and Luther. It is accepted by Lutherans, with 
a few T exceptions. According to this theory, soul as 
well as body is transmitted from parent to child. This 
theory is most consistent with the unity of human nature, 
and with that of the universality of inherited sin. The 
chief argument urged against it, is that it conflicts with 
the simplicity of the soul. But one light may enkindle 
another without diminishing the original flame. 

Neither Creationism nor Traducianism exhausts the 
truth concerning man's origin. Traducianism should be 
interpreted as Mediate Creationism. God is no less the 
creator of souls (Is. 57: 16; Jer. 1:5; Zech. 12: 1), when 
he uses second causes to bring them into the world. Hence 
the confessional statement : "God not only before the Fall 
created the body and soul of Eve, but, since the Fall, has 
created also our bodies and souls" (F. C, 545). 

23. What distinguished the state of Integrity from the 
state of Corruption which has succeeded? 

Man's endowment with the Image of God. 

Gen. 1:27 — "Cod created man in his own image, in the image of God 
created he him." 

Gen. 5:1 — "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made 
he him." 

Gen. 9:6 — "For in the image of God made he man." 

24. As God is reported in Gen. 1:26 as saying, "Let 
us make man in our image, after our likeness," what dif- 
ference is there between the "image" and the "likeness" 
of God? 

The Greek and Roman Churches make much of a dis- 
tinction which they here find between qualities essential 
to the nature and those which perfect it. 



g6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VII. 

But "we do not distinguish 'image and likeness,' so as to 
refer the former to the essence of the soul, and the latter 
to the holiness, justice and knowledge of God in man, but 
we teach that the same thing is expressed by both terms, 
and that 'likeness' is used exegetically" (Gerhard). The 
proof for this is the promiscuous use of the terms. Scrip- 
ture sometimes uses -both terms in the same case, some- 
times in different cases, and sometimes gives only one 
term and omits the other. While God uses both terms in 
the declaration of his purpose (Gen. I : 26), when the re- 
sult is declared the one word "image" is employed. We 
have no warrant, therefore, to distinguish between these 
terms. 

25. But even though the application of ihe terms "im- 
age" and "likeness" to such distinction cannot be ad- 
mitted, is not the distinction itself Scriptural? 

Yes ; for man's spiritual nature was created in the im- 
age of God, and is that image in the wide sense of the 
term ; and within that nature as created, certain perfec- 
tions capable of loss inhered, which constitute "the im- 
age" in the special sense of the term. Man's personality, 
his intellectual and moral nature, constitute the image in 
the former sense. There are references to the image in 
this sense in 

James 3:9 — "Therewith curse we men who are made after the likeness of 
God." 

Gen. 9:6 — "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; 
for in the image of God, made he man." 

While Scripture does not refer to this as frequently as 
to the image in the special sense, it is not because this is 
excluded, but because the latter is the more important. 
As Luther has said, "When Moses says that man was 
made in God's image, he shows thereby that man is not 
only like God in having reason or understanding and a 
will, but especially that he is conformed to God, i. e., he 
has such understanding and will as to understand God, 
and will what God wills." 



Chap. VII. ] MAN AS CREATED. 97 

26. What then is the image of God In the special 
sense? 

In the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Luth- 
eran Church has defined it as Original Righteousness. 

27. How is this explained? 

"That in man there were embodied such wisdom and 
righteousness as apprehended God, and in which God was 
reflected, i. e., to man were given the gifts of the knowl- 
edge of God, the fear of God, confidence in God and the 
like" (Apology, p. 79). 

28. Knowledge was, therefore, one, of the constituents 
cf the image? 

Yes, according to Col. 3:10: 

"The new man which is being renewed unto knowledge, after the image 
of him that created him." 

This must not be interpreted, however, as though our 
first parents had such knowledge as was incapable of be- 
ing increased, or that it extended to the decrees of God, 
or that it included all classes of material objects in ency- 
clopedic survey. Contrasts have sometimes been made 
between the knowledge of Adam and that of Solomon 
and of Aristotle. Such discussions are scholastic trifles. 
The knowledge here meant is simply such knowledge of 
God and of themselves and of the world, as to enable them 
perfectly to attain the end for which they were destined. 
Their knowledge is to be estimated not by the number of 
topics it included, but by its religious value. 

29. What other constituent is explicitly mentioned? 
Righteousness and holiness. 

Eph. 4:24 — "Put on the new man, which after God hath been created in 
righteousness and holiness of truth." 

Man had both the strength and the desire to fear, love 
and serve God above all things. The body was so com- 
pletely under the control of a holy will that followed in 
all things the divine Law, as in all its activities and im- 
pulses, to be pure, and intent on God's glory. 



98 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VII. 

30. What freedom was implied in this? 

Not freedom of independence, since this belongs only 
to God, but from compulsion, from physical necessity and 
from servitude. Nevertheless the will was not exempt 
from mutability. Adam, like the angels at creation, was 
endowed with the power of sinning and of abstaining 
from sin. He was sinless, but not impeccable. 

31. In what then does the original state of man differ 
from that which is at last attained by grace? 

Augustine answers : "The first freedom of the will was 
to be able not to sin ; the final, is not to be able to sin. The 
first immortality was to be able not to die ; the final, is not 
to be able to die. The first power of perseverance is to 
be able not to desert the good ; the final, is not to be able 
to desert the good." 

32. What external evidences of the presence of this 
image were there? 

(a) The condition of the body, reflecting and express- 
ing outwardly the glory of the soul, and with its various 
members, eye, ear, heart, etc., used to describe divine at- 
tributes. The erect form of man, with his countenance, 
unlike those of other animals turned towards heaven, re- 
minds man of his origin and the destiny for which he 
was intended. Besides his body was exempt from all 
pain and accident and death, as long as this image of God 
remained unimpaired (Gen. 2:16; Rom. 5:12; 6:23). 
His immortality was conditional, unlike that of God, 
which is absolute (1 Tim. 6: 16). 

(b) His dominion over all other creatures (Gen. 1 : 20, 
28; 2: 16). This extends not only over brutes and rep- 
tiles, but over all the resources and powers of nature, the 
soil, the mountains, the rivers, the ocean, the winds, the 
stars and planets, light, heat, electricity, all the various 
appliances of Physics and Chemistry, Astronomy and 
Geology to man's interests. Like the knowledge of our 



Chap. VII.] MAN AS CREATED. 99 

first parents, the dominion actually exercised was only 
such as was then needed in the simplicity of their exist- 
ence, and was to have been developed in their cultivation 
of the dominion assigned then. It differed from the more 
extensive dominion now exercised in the ease with which 
it was exercised, as contrasted with the painful struggles 
through which it has developed from age to age in the 
state which has followed. 

(c) The glory of his home (Gen. 2:8-17). 

33. Was the image of God essential or accidental to 
mans nature ? 

The answer depends upon what is regarded as the 
image. If the term be used in the widest sense for man's 
spiritual nature and personality (see above, 25), then it is 
essential to man's nature. If, however, it be restricted 
to the perfections with which this nature was originally 
endowed in accordance with the New Testament pas- 
sages which refer to the loss and the restoration of this 
image, then, of course, it is accidental. The error of 
Flacius which occasioned a controversy in the Lutheran 
Church, and reappears in the treatment of Original Sin, 
was that even in the latter sense, the image of God was 
essential to human nature. 

34. Was it therefore a superadded gift? 

It was a gift inhering in and pervading the entire na- 
ture, as it came from God's hands, and not something 
extraneous or mechanically attached thereto. The schol- 
astics distinguished between a so-called "status purorum 
naturalium/' and the image itself ; and taught that while 
the image has been lost, the pnra naturalia remains, al- 
though corrupted. Apart from the fact that such state 
never existed, except as a matter of purely abstract specu- 
lation, such doctrine represents human nature as created 
morally indifferent, in opposition to Gen. 1:31. 

i- Of c. 



100 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VII, 

' "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very- 
good." 

The corruption of human nature which has followed 
does not make that nature as such either sin or morally 
indifferent. So far as human nature is a creature of God, 
it is good even when ruined, the ruin coming not from 
God, but from the abuse of God's creation. 

It is incorrect, therefore, to maintain, as Roman Cath- 
olic theologians have done, that the image of God had no 
more to do with man's nature, than a bit has to do with 
a horse, or a man's clothes with his personality. 

35. Would you say, then, that the image ivas "super- 
natural"? 

Here again, everything depends upon the definition of 
"supernatural." Many of the discussions of theologians 
occur from using the same term in two senses. If "super- 
natural" mean having powers and capacities above the 
range of human nature, as it is at present, then the image 
was supernatural ; but if the standpoint be that of human 
nature in man's first state, then it was natural. In a word, 
it was natural to a normal and incorrupt ; it is superna- 
tural, with respect to an enfeebled and corrupt nature. 

36. What estimate is to be placed upon the doctrine of 
mans first state? 

Just in the degree that its perfections arc denied or 
diminished, is the significance of sin and its consequences 
decreased; and just in the degree that sin and its conse- 
quences are extenuated, are the necessity and importance 
of the work of Christ disparaged. If mortality, for in- 
stance, were ascribed to man before the Fall, death would 
not be the wages of sin, and the death of Christ would 
have to find a different explanation from that of the 
New Testament. 



Chap. VIII. ] sin. 101 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SIN. 

1. What is sin? 

i John 3 : 4 — "Sin is lawlessness." 

2. What does this mean? 

That God has fixed a standard, and that whatever in 
state or in act, fails to meet its requirements is sin. 

3. What is the standard? 

His Law, or the eternal rule of right by which He has 
prescribed what He wants His creatures to be, to do, or 
to refrain from doing. 

4. Give 3 then, a somewhat fuller definition. 

Sin is to be otherwise, and to do otherwise, than God 
means us to be or do. 

5. Who is the cause of sin? 

"They teach that although God creates and preserves 
nature, yet that the cause of sin is the will of the wicked, 
i. e., of the devil and ungodly men, which will, unaided 
of God, turned itself away from Him" (Augsburg Con- 
fession, Art. XIX). 

6. How many kinds of sin are there? 
Two : Original and Actual. 

7. What is Original Sin? 

"Since the Fall of Adam, all men begotten according to 
nature, are born with sin, that is without the fear of God, 
without trust in God, and with concupiscence ; and this 
disease or vice of origin is truly sin, even now condemn- 
ing and bringing eternal death upon those not born again 
through Baptism and the Holy Ghost" (Augsburg Con- 
fession, Art. II). 

8. Where then does Original Sin begin? 
In the Fall of Adam. 



102 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VIII. 

Rom. 5:12 — "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death 
through sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned." 

9. But is Original Sin a Scriptural term? 

No, but a term employed by the Church to express the 
truth taught in the above passage, as well as frequently 
elsewhere in Scripture. 

10. Docs it always refer to the same thing? 
Sometimes it designates the act of disobedience to God's 

prohibition in Paradise ("Original Sin originating"), or 
the First Sin of our race. Sometimes it refers to the cor- 
ruption or depravity of human nature in consequence of 
the First Sin ("Original Sin originated"). Article Second 
of the Augsburg Confession uses it in the second sense. 

11. What was. the significance of ihe prohibition in 
Paradise? 

It was a test of obedience. 

12. What was involved in the disobedience? 
Before the external act of reaching forth the hand and 

taking the forbidden fruit, there was doubt in the intel- 
lect (Gen. 3:3), an inordinate desire for greater resem- 
blance or equality with God in the will (Gen. 3:5), and 
lust for the gratification of sense beyond what God al- 
lowed (Gen. 3 : 16). 

13. What commandment was violated? 

In breaking one commandment, the whole Law was 
violated. 

Break one link of a chain and the whole chain is 
broken ; cut an ocean cable at one point, and the whole 
cable is severed. 

James 2:10 — "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in 
one point, he is guilty of all." 

14. Why is the sin known as "the sin of Adam"? 
Because while Eve fell and was involved in all the 

consequences of the Fall, he was the head of the race, and 
had he proved faithful, God could have provided another 
mother for his descendants. 



Chap. VIII.] sin. 103 

15. What were the consequences of ihe Fall? 

(a) The loss of the divine image, in its strict sense, or 
the perfections with which human nature was endowed 
at creation (see above, Chapter VII, 26-30). 

(b) Guilt, or the disgrace and moral taint resulting 
from sin. 

(c) A state or habit of sin. For the lack of the per- 
fections of the divine image is of itself sin. If the 
sum of the commandments is love to God, the absence of 
this love is assuredly sin. 

(d) Punishment, the inseparable attendant of guilt. 

16. What zvas the Punishment? 
Death. 

Gen. 2:17 — "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." 
Rom. 5:12 — "Death passed upon all men, for that all sinned." 
Rom. 6:23 — "The wages of sin is death." 

17. Hozv many forms of this punishment are there? 
Three : Death Spiritual, Temporal and Eternal. 

(a) Spiritual death is the separation of the soul from 
God, or the interruption of the life-communion which the 
soul had with God. 

Eph. 2:5 — "Even when we were dead through our trespasses made lis 
alive together with Christ." 

Col. 2:13 — "And you being dead through your trespasses." Cf. Matt. 
8:22; Luke 9:60; 15:24; 1 Tim. 5:6. 

What the soul is to the body, God was to the soul. With 
the interruption of this relation, all spiritual life vanished. 

(b) Temporal death, or the separation of the soul from 
the body. 

Eccl. 12:7 — "The dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit to 
God who gave it." 

(c) Eternal death is the eternal state of the soul re- 
united with the body and separated from God. This is 
called also "the second death" (Rev. 2:11; 20:14; 
21:8; Chapter XXXIX). 

18. How do these three unite? 

They are only stages of one and the same death. As 



104 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VIII. 

in bodily death, one sense, or one portion of the body dies 
before another, or a twig may blossom even after cut from 
its stalk, so the separation of the soul from God results 
in temporal death, and temporal death culminates, if un- 
arrested, in eternal death. 

19. How was the warning, "In the day that thou 
eat est thou shall surely die," fulfilled f 

The spiritual death was immediate, and even the pro- 
cesses of temporal death began at once. But the fact that 
the culmination is reached only by a long process, is 
doubtless due to the provision which God was making for 
man's redemption. The shadow of the Cross already fell 
across the human race, and protected it from the full heat 
of the divine wrath. 

20. You spoke of "the processes of temporal death." 
Explain this? 

By "processes" I mean all infirmities and diseases of 
body and soul, and the suffering which they bring. The 
healthiest body has its organs enfeebled or diseased. Since 
the Fall, health is only a relative term. 

21. But were this guilt and this punishment limited 
to our first parents? 

Rom. 5:12 — "And so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned." 

22. How can zve be responsible for the sin of another? 
• In one sense, Adam's sin was not the sin of another. 
All humanity was in Adam, and in him lost the endow- 
ments that pleased God. Beside, he stood not only as the 
organic head, but as the federal head of the race. 

1 Cor. 15:22 — "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be 
made alive." 

23. But have zve not an express declaration, "The son 
shall not bear the iniquity of the father" (Ez. 18: 20)? 

The prophet is speaking of actual sins, which he enu- 
merates in the context. We do not participate in the 
guilt of any ancestral sin, since that of Adam. The com- 



Chap. VIII. ] sin. 105 

mon nature derived through our parents has been cor- 
rupted by Adam's sin ; this, with all its sin, we inherit. 
But the specific sins to which this common corrupt nature 
led in my ancestors since Adam do not belong to me. 

24. How then about Ex. 20:5, "Visiting the iniquity 
of the fathers upon the children upon the third and upon 
the fourth generation of them that hate me"? 

Here the children share in the guilt of the actual sins 
of parents by following their example, and committing 
like sins. 

25. What tzvo terms have theologians used to explain 
the relation of Adam's sin to his descendants? 

Immediate and Mediate Imputation. Immediate Im- 
putation is when the first sin in the Garden of Eden is said 
(as above, 22) to be ours. Mediate Imputation is where 
the sin of Adam is viewed as the source of the corruption 
of human nature which has followed, and this corruption 
is found to merit God's wrath. The argument of Mediate 
Imputation is that if the condition of our nature is sinful, 
and this sinfulness came from Adam, our responsibility 
for this sinful state means that we partake in his guilt 
for its existence. 

26. Which form of the doctrine is taught by Luth- 
eran Church? 

Both ; but in accordance with the thoroughly practical 
character of our Church, chief stress is laid upon the 
latter, since it is most effective in convincing men of their 
being by nature beneath God's wrath. Hence the Augs- 
burg Confession in Art. II, defines Original Sin as the 
corrupt state of our nature, and lays all emphasis upon 
"Original Sin originated" (see above, 10), which many 
theologians, particularly in the Reformed Church, regard 
not as sin itself, but as a punishment of sin. 

27. Into what elements does the Augsburg Confession 
resolve Original Sin? 



106 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VIII. 

Into a negative, viz., "to be without the fear of God 
and without trust in God," and a positive element, "to 
have concupiscence." 

28. How can the former be sin? 

By being a violation of the First Commandment, which 
is the sum of all the commandments. Not to be able to 
fear and love God is of itself want of conformity with 
God's Law (see above, 1-4) ; it is being otherwise than 
what God wants us to be. 

29. What is "concupiscence"? 

The temper or attitude or disposition of man's heart 
and mind in antagonism to all that God wants and is. 

Rom. 8:7 — "The carnal ruind is enmity against God; for it is not subject 
to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 

1 Cor. 2:14 — "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of 
God, for they are foolishness unto him." 

Matt. 15:19 — "For out of the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, 
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railing." 

Jam,es 1:14 — "Each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own 
lust and enticed." 

Gal. 5:17 — "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit." 

This concupiscence is not limited to any one of the 
commandments, but is directed against them all. Augus- 
tine, and after him, the Mediaeval Church, was inclined 
to place its chief sphere in desires contrary to the Sixth 
Commandment. 

30. How extensive is Original Sin? 

With one exception, all are its subjects. The Augsburg 
Confession uses the words, "All men born according to 
the common course of nature are born with sin," in order 
to exempt from its statement the humanity of Christ. 

Heb. 4:15 — "In all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin." 
Heb. 7:26 — "Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." 

31. Prove this universality. 

The entire argument of the fifth chapter of Romans is 
to the effect that the presence of death is a proof of sin, 
and that whoever dies must have sinned. The death of 
Christ we know occurred by His bearing the sins of the 



Chap. VIII. ] sin. 107 

human race. "Death reigned," we are told in v. 14, 
"from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not 
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," i. e., 
even where actual sin was wanting. 

So in John 3 : 3, 5, 6, our 'Lord expressly excludes from 
the kingdom of heaven all who are not regenerate. In 
the words, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," He 
declares that every one who comes into this world is in 
such condition that for entrance into the new life a great 
internal change must occur. 

In Eph. 2: 1-5 St. Paul refers to Christians as having 
been dead in trespasses and sins, and by their very nature 
"children of wrath." 

32. But it is explicitly declared, "Where there is no 
law, there is no transgression' (Rom. 4: 15). Does not 
Ms exempt infants zvho cannot knozv the law? 

The passage must be understood in accordance with the 
context. The argument of Paul is that death proves sin, 
and the violation of law, and that even though they be 
not guilty of actual transgression, in sinning after the 
similitude of Adam's sin, their death shows that they have 
transgressed otherwise and are under law. Other pas- 
sages that might be cited concerning the innocence of 
little children must also be interpreted with respect to 
actual sins, and not to Original Sin. 

33. Beside infecting all men, zvhat further statement 
can be made concerning the extent of Original Sin? 

It is pervasive. It belongs to all parts and powers of 
human nature. It is a disease or vicious and depraved 
habit corrupting the whole man. "It is a deep, wicked, 
horrible, fathomless, inscrutable, and unspeakable corrup- 
tion of the entire nature and all its powers, especially of 
the highest, principal powers of the soul in understanding, 
heart and will" (Formula of Concord, 592). 



I08 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VIII. 

34. What is the consequence of this corruption of the 
highest powers? 

This will be considered hereafter at greater length, 
under "The Freedom of the Will." But, meanwhile, we 
may recall what has been cited above in Chapter I, 32 : 

"When even the most able and learned men upon earth 
read or hear the Gospel of the Son of God, and the prom- 
ise of eternal salvation, they cannot, from their own pow- 
ers perceive, apprehend, understand or believe and regard 
it true, but the more diligence and earnestness they em- 
ploy, in order to comprehend, with their reason, these 
spiritual things, the less they understand or believe, and 
before they become enlightened or taught by the Holy 
Ghost, they regard all this only foolishness or fictions." 

35. Is this corruption then so great as to justify the 
assertion that, since the fall, man's nature is sin? 

No; for while the word "nature" is sometimes used in 
a loose sense, not for nature itself, but for a quality or dis- 
position in the nature, as when we say, "It is the nature 
of the serpent to bite," nevertheless the expression is to 
be avoided and condemned. Man's nature is not sin, but 
sinful. Much as one may suffer from diphtheria or 
typhoid fever, no one can be said to become either of 
these diseases. 

36. Was such error ever taught? 

Yes, in the early days of Christianity, by the Marti - 
chaeans, and, shortly after the Reformation by Matthias 
Flacius Illyricus. 

37. Repeat the arguments by which his error was 
refuted. 

God created human nature ; He cannot be said to create 
sin. 

The Son of God assumed human nature; He did not 
assume sin. 

He redeemed human nature; He does not redeem sin. 



Chap. VIII.] sin. 109 

He justifies and sanctifies human nature; He does 
neither to sin. 

He will at the Last Day raise human nature from the 
dead ; this He will not do with Original Sin. 

Original Sin, therefore, is not substantial, but acci- 
dental to human nature. 

38. How did Flacius come to advocate such a mani- 
festly extreme position? 

By his earnestness in refuting the opinion that Original 
Sin is only a slight corruption of man's powers, and that 
he still retains some good in him to begin or cowork in 
things pertaining to God. 

39. Has Original Sin equal power in all? 

No. In some it reigns and makes them its slaves 
(Rom. 6: 16; Titus 3:3). In others, it is resisted, and 
its dominion broken (Rom. 8:2,13). 

40. Hozv long does it remain? 

Its guilt is removed in justification; its dominion is 
broken with the beginning of renovation, and gradually 
and successively disappears as renovation grows. Of 
this process a vivid picture is found in Rom. VII. Its 
complete destruction does not occur until in death. 

41. What other opinion has been advanced? 

That of the Roman Catholic Church, following some 
scholastics, that, in the baptized, concupiscence is no 
longer sin. 

42. Hozv is this refuted? 

The argument of Chemnitz is as follows : Concupi- 
scence in the baptized is one of three things, either a good, 
or a matter of indifference or an evil. Can it be a good, 
when Paul says, "In me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no 
good thing" (Rom. 7: 18) ? Can it be a matter of indif- 
ference, when he says again, "The good which I would, 
I do not ; but the evil which I would not that I practice" 
(Rom. 7: 19) ? He cannot speak of concupiscence before 



IIO A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VIII, 

baptism, but it is the baptized and experienced Christian 
who makes this confession. In the same chapter this 
concupiscence is repeatedly called sin, and its conflict with 
God's law described. 

43. What are the fruits of Original Sinf 

All the wicked deeds forbidden in the Ten Command- 
ments. The moral quality of every deed is determined 
by the moral quality or character of the doer. 

Matt. 7:17 — "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but the corrupt 
tree bringeth forth evil fruit." 

Luke 6:45 — "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth 
forth that which is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure, that 
which is evil; for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh." 

Matt. 15:19 — "For out of the heart, come forth evil thoughts, murders, 
adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, railing." 

All the sins of men are, therefore, organically united in 
the state of sin from which they spring. Original sin is 
the root ; actual sins are the sprouts. Original Sin is the 
fountain ; actual sins are the streams. Original Sin is the 
ocean ; they are the waves that rise and fall upon it. Orig- 
inal Sin is the disease ; actual sins are symptoms. 

44. Where is this particularly taught? 

By David in the Fifty-first Psalm. He traces his great 
sin which he confesses in verses 2-4, back to the source 
in Original Sin whence it came, vs. 5, 6, 10. (See Luth- 
er's exposition.) 

45. When actual sins are spoken of, in what sense 
must "actual" be regarded? 

Not as synonymous with "real," as though Original 
Sin were not in this sense actual, i. e., a reality ; but 
"actual," because existing in act, as distinguished from 
Original Sin which refers to state, condition, habit, tem- 
per or disposition. 

46. Define Actual Sin? 

Every action, whether internal or external, that con- 
flicts with God's Law, as well as every omission of an 
action which the same Law commands. 



Chap. VIII.] sin. in 

47. What are the causes of Actual Sin? 

The concupiscence or inner depravity may work in two 
ways, viz., either spontaneously, or it may be stimulated 
to activity from without. To the former, James 1 : 14, 
15 is especially applicable: 

"Each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and 
enticed. Then the lust when it hath conceived, beareth sin; and the sin 
when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death." 

When it is stimulated from without, it may be either by 
the devil or the World. 

48. How does the devil tempt or stimulate mans in- 
ner depravity? 

By suggesting the thought, and even the plan for carry- 
ing out the thought of sin, as in John 13 : 2. He has no 
power to force one to commit the sin which he suggests. 
The regenerate have greater power to resist him than the 
unregenerate. 

James 4:7 — "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 

1 Cor. 10:13 — "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted 

above that ye are able, but will, with the temptation, make also the way of 

escape." Cf. Eph. 6:11-13; 1 Peter 5:9. 

49. How does the world stimulate marts inner de- 
pravity? 

By the teaching, suggestion, advice and example of 
wicked men and women ; as well as by objects that appeal 
to sense and thus enkindle the desire of sin. 

1 John 2:14, 15 — "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the 
world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and 
the pride of life, is not of the Father', but is of the world." 

50. What is meant by "an inner action"? 

A desire or purpose to sin that is called forth or cher- 
ished (Matt. 5 : 27). 

51. What effect has every actual sin? 

A disposition of will inclining it to the repetition of 
similar acts of sin, and ultimately to a particular habit 
of sin. 

52. How are sins classified t 



112 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. VIII. 

First, into Voluntary and Involuntary. The former 
are those deliberately committed, with .the knowledge 
that they are sins ; the latter are committed in ignorance, 
or under the impulse of violent passion, sometimes known 
as sins of ignorance or infirmity, as contrasted with pre- 
sumptuous sins. 

Ps. 19:12, 13 — "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from 
secret sins. Keep back thy servant also from presumptous sins." 

1 Tim. 1:13 — "I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." 

53. What is a second mode of classification? 

Into sins of commission, or positive acts conflicting 
with a negative commandment, and sins of omission, con- 
sisting in the negation or omission of acts, prescribed by 
an affirmative commandment. 

54. A third? 

Into sins directly against God, or those forbidden in the 
First Table of the Decalogue ; against one's neighbor, or 
those forbidden in the Second Table ; and against oneself, 
as 1 Cor. 6: 18, designates fornication, to which may be 
added drunkenness, suicide, etc. 

55. A fourth? 

Into sins of heart, mouth and deed. Our Lord treats 
of these in Matt. 5 : 21, 22. The first is the most grievous. 
Habitual hatred toward an innocent neighbor or purpose 
to injure long cherished in the mind is a more grievous 
sin than the harsh answer of one to whom injustice has 
been done. 

56. What of the distinction between Venial and Mor- 
tal sins? 

Of themselves, no sins are venial, but all are mortal. 
No such scheme of classification, therefore, can be adopted 
by which particular offences can be said to be venial and 
others mortal. Whether a sin be venial or mortal is deter- 
mined entirely by the relation of the sinner to Christ. The 
least sin knowingly and deliberately committed is incon- 
sistent with faith, and is mortal. But the regenerate, in 



Chap. VIII.] sin. 113 

their infirmity, and against the most sincere effort of their 
hearts, are not without sins ; these and only these are 
venial. 

57. Is there any sin irremissible? 
Yes. The sin against the Holy Ghost. 

Matt. 12:31, 2> 2 — "Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; 
but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever 
shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but 
whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, 
neither in this world, nor in that which is to come." 

Mark 3:29 — "Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, hath 
never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." 

58. Why is it irremissible? 

Not because it exceeds the mercy of God, and the 
merits of Christ (Is. i : 18), but because the very means 
by which the grace of God is offered are despised and 
blasphemed. "It is not as though God were never will- 
ing to pity such sinners, for His protestation is universal 
in which He affirms with an oath (Ez. 18:32), that He 
does not will the death of him who dies. Neither is it as 
though Christ had not died and made satisfaction for such 
sin ; for He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole 
world (1 John 2:2). But it is said to be irremissible by 
accident ; because such sinners are so hardened as to be 
unwilling to receive Christ, the only remedy for their sins ; 
but persecute Him, and with an inflexible purpose, persist 
in their fury; and thus cast themselves into eternal de- 
struction. . . . But if it could so happen that they could 
be led to a knowledge of this sin, the mercy of God would 
be accessible even to them" (Baldwin, on 1 Tim. I). 

The context in Matthew shows that Christ gave this 
warning when the Pharisees ascribed His works to the 
devil (Matt. 12: 24). It is not said here that the Pharisees 
had already incurred such sin, for it seems to be one that 
belongs peculiarly to the period when the Holy Ghost is 
fully given, but the warning is that the culmination of 
such sin as they were committing would be the sin against 
the Holy Ghost. 



114 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IX. 

59. Is it referred to elsewhere in Holy Scripture t 

Heb. 6:4, s, 6 — "For as touching those who were once enlightened, and 
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 
and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and 
then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing 
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
shame." 

Heb. 10:26 — "For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the 
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins." 

60. What is here taught ? 

That they who commit this sin have been regenerate 
and godly persons who have deserted the faith, and that 
it is accompanied by peculiar hostility to the truth and 
open defiance of the Holy Spirit. 

61. Are those zvho commit this sin ever troubled con- 
cerning it? 

No. For they are abandoned by the Spirit, from whom 
all conviction of sin comes. 



CHAFTER IX. 

THE GRACE OF GOD TOWARDS FALLEN MEN. 

1. What is the natural fruit of sin? 

Eternal death. As seen above (Chapter VIII, 17, 18), 
this is simply spiritual death at its maturity, or in its cul- 
mination. 

2. But is not Eternal Death the result of a new act or 
volition of God? 

No. All man's ruin comes from himself. If any one 
be lost, he is lost solely by his own fault. No one is lost 
by God's will. God permits much that He does not 
cause (Chapter V, 23). 

3. All having sinned, we understand, therefore, that 
all would have eternally perished, unless God had inter- 
rupted the natural order of sin and death? 

Such is the clear teaching of Holy Scripture. 



Chap. IX.] THE GRACE OF GOD. 115 

4. // God, however, had not interfered, and all had 
been left to the consequences of their sins, could man 
have complained? 

This would have been nothing less than what is just, 
and what occurred to the fallen angels. 

5. If God had interfered to save one man, or a hun- 
dred, or a thousand, and had made no provision for the 
rest, would there have been any injustice? 

Every one who has sinned being justly liable to the full 
penalty, no one can plead any injustice in case God, out of 
pure mercy, determines to save others involved in the 
same guilt. 

6. But if He were to save the majority of the race, 
would the remainder be injured? 

The answer is the same, even though justice would 
exact its extreme penalty in but one case, and all the rest 
escape. 

7. Was such a discrimination shown? 

No. But we reach the true doctrine not by arguing 
concerning the abstract justice of God, but by learning of 
the universality of the Plan of Redemption as taught in 
the Gospel. 

8. What moved God to interfere with the natural or- 
der of sin, and to provide for man's salvation? 

Nothing but His free will (Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:1, 5, 9, 
etc.), or "good pleasure" (eudokia) (Eph. 1:5, 9; Phil. 
2:13; Luke 2:14). He was not determined by any 
necessity of His nature or obligation to man. 

9. What disposition of God is particularly manifest in 
this act of His will to save man? 

His Grace (see Chapter II, 73). 

Eph. 1:7 — "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive- 
ness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace." 2:8 — "By grace 
are ye saved through faith; and that not ot yourselves, it is the gift ot 
God." Tit. 2:11 — "The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation 
unto all men." 



Il6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IX. 

This implies the absolute absence of any merit in man 
which could deserve this interference, but that God's 
love was exercised in spite of that which called for God's 
wrath. 

His Mercy (see Chapter II, *]*] ; Eph. 2:4; Titus 3:5). 
This presupposes the foreseen misery of men because of 
sin and its consequences. 

10. What do you mean by the universality of Grace? 

That it has been extended towards all men. As univer- 
sal as is sin, so universal is grace. As universal as is 
misery because of sin, so universal is the mercy for the 
relief of this misery. 

1 Tim. 2:4 — "God our Saviour who would have all men to be saved, and 
come to the knowledge of the truth." 

2 Peter 3:9 — "Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance." 

John 3:16 — "God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son," etc. 

11. But may not the universality of Grace apply 
simply to the race as a whole? 

In its provisions, it is extended to each and every indi- 
vidual alike. No one is excepted or passed by. 

1 Tim. 1:15 — "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." 

Rom. 11:32 — "God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have 
mercy upon all." 

12. What is the testimony of the Lutheran Church on 
this subject? 

"As the preaching of repentance, so also the promise of 
the Gospel is universal, i. e., it pertains to all men (Luke 
24). Therefore Christ has commanded 'that repentance 
and remission of sins should be preached in His name 
among all nations.' For God loved the world and gave 
His Son (John 3 : 16). Christ bore the sins of the world 
(John 1: 29), gave His flesh for the life of the world 
(John 6:51), His blood is the propitiation for the sins 
of the whole world (1 John 1:7; 2:2)" (Formula of 
Concord, 654). 



Chap. IX.] THE GRACE OF GOD. 1\J 

13. Explain somewhat more fully the text "God would 
have all men to be saved" (1 Tim. 2:4). 

"He does not say that it is His will that the godly be 
saved, but that the world should be saved through Him. 
For by the expression 'world,' He means the whole race 
of mortals. For although the whole world is not saved 
through Christ, nevertheless the will of God is com- 
mended to us as directed not towards the destruction, 
but towards the salvation of all" (Wolfgang Musculus 
quoted by Calovius). 

14. Recapitulate the arguments cf our theologians in 
support of this position. 

(a) The universality of Christ's merits. 

1 John 2:2 — "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, 
but also for the whole world." 

(b) The universality of the call. 

Matt. 11:28 — "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and 
I will give you rest." 

(c) The universality of the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Acts 10:17 — "I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh." 

(d) The administration of Word and Sacraments, the 
purpose of which is the salvation of those to whom they 
come, even though the results differ with respect to dif- 
ferent classes. 

(e) The condemnation of unbelievers for their rejec- 
tion of the offers of the Gospel. 

15. Is it right, then, io say that God willed that all 
should he saved provided they believe ? 

No. For it is God's will not only that men be saved, 
but also ihat they should believe (see above, 10; 1 Tim. 
2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). Just as Christ died even for those 
who do not or will not believe, so also God's gra- 
cious will is independent of man's faith, or any disposition 
of man towards God. As the call and promise are univer- 
sal, so also is the will of God of which they are the ex- 
pression. 



Il8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. IX. 

16. If it be God's will that all should believe and be 
saved, how is it that many are lost? 

Because it is not God's will that men be saved against 
their own wills. Man's will forever retains the freedom 
to reject what God offers and what God sincerely desires 
that he accept. 

Matt. 23:37 — "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets and 
stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy 
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, 
but ye would not." 

17. What is implied in saying that God wills man's 
salvation ? 

This is more than a will of complacency (see Chapter 
II, 72 c), by which He would be satisfied or gratified with 
whatever pertains to man's welfare. 

18. Why? 

Because man being spiritually dead is without any 
power to will, devise or contribute to his own salvation. 

"In spiritual and divine things, the intellect, heart and 
will of unregenerate men cannot in any way, by their 
own natural powers, understand, believe, accept, think, 
will, begin, effect, do, work or concur in working any- 
thing; but they are entirely dead to good and corrupt" 
(Formula of Concord, 552). 

All man's help, therefore, must come alone from God. 

19. What then is God's saving will towards man? 

It is His purpose to make every provision whereby the 
salvation of each and every man is rendered possible, all 
of which is included in the Plan of Redemption that He 
devised. 

20. What are included in this plan? 

The incarnation and mediatorial work of the Son of 

God. 

The special mission of the Holy Ghost to apply the 
fruits of this mediatorial office. 

The institution of the Means of Grace, through which 



Chap. X.] THE PREPARATION OF REDEMPTION. IIO, 

the various acts of this applying grace are wrought, to the 
end that men may be called, justified and glorified. 

21. What is the proper place for the treatment of Pre- 
destination ? 

After all the details which God's decree and purpose 
comprised, are learned from the Gospel. For whatever 
the Gospel contains and proclaims was included in this 
purpose. 

22. What has Luther said on this subject? 

"Follow the order of the Epistle to the Romans, and 
concern thyself with Christ and the Gospel, that thou 
mayst recognize thy sins and His grace ; then fight with 
sins as Chapters I-VIII have taught. After that, when 
thou hast come to the eighth chapter, and art under the 
cross and suffering, thou wilt learn right well in Chap- 
ters IX-XI how comforting predestination is" (Intro- 
duction to Romans). 

23. What has the Lutheran Church confessed concern- 
ing Predestination? 

"This 'is not to be investigated in the secret counsel of 
God, but to be taught from the Word of God, where it is 
also revealed. But the Word of God leads us to Christ, 
who is the Book of Life, in whom all are written and 
elected that are to be saved, as it is written (Eph. 1 '.4) 
'He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the 
world.' " See Chapter XLI. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE PREPARATION OF REDEMPTION. 

i. When did God first reveal His purpose to redeem 
man? 

As soon as man had fallen. In Gen. 3 : 15 is a promise, 
often called the "protevangelium" or "protogospel." "The 
seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." This 



120 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. X. 

refers to the ultimate victory which humanity, "the seed 
of the woman," is to obtain in the constant struggle which 
began in Eden. Its still deeper significance gradually be- 
came apparent in succeeding prophecies, culminating in 
One who, while "the seed of the woman" and the true 
representative of the race, is also true God. 

i Cor. 15:22 — "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be 
made alive." 47 — "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man. 
is of heaven." 

2. What two-fold preparation at once began? 

God gradually prepared man for salvation, and pre- 
pared salvation for man. 

3. Hozv was man prepared for salvation ? 
Through the education of many centuries, in which his 

knowledge of sin was deepened, his inability to aid him- 
self was recognized, and his need of redemption from a 
higher source w r as acknowledged and devoutly longed for, 

4. Hozv was salvation prepared for man? 

. By the gradual revelation of the Plan of Redemption 
in type and ceremony and promise, until in the fulness of 
time (Gal. 4:4) the Son of God became incarnate. 

5. State the relation of the tivo parts of the human 
race to this two-fold preparation ? 

The former occurred chiefly in heathenism, exhibiting 
the efforts of man by the exertion of his own powers to 
struggle upwards towards God (Acts 17:27). The en- 
tire history of the Gentile world is told in the words of 
Augustine : "Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our 
heart is restless until it rest on Thee." 

The latter occurred in Judaism (Rom. 3:1,2). 
Through the positive revelation, even though incomplete, 
there was a constant approach of God towards man, 
through successive stages until Christ came. 

6. Are we to understand, then, that the preparation 
through' heathenism was entirely negative, and that 
through Judaism entirely positive/ 



Chap. X.] THE PREPARATION OF REDEMPTION. 121 

No. For in a less degree heathenism afforded some 
positive elements, in the preparation of the means through 
which the Gospel was to be diffused. The universal em- 
pire of Rome, the universal language, the means of com- 
munication between nations, the culture of the race, be- 
came important instrumentalities for the progress of the 
Gospel. 

So there was also, a negative element in Judaism. When 
man attempted to attain righteousness before God by his 
fulfilment of all the prescriptions of the Law, he learned 
his helplessness. Rom. 3 : 20, "Through the law cometh 
the knowledge of sin." The entire system of rites and 
ceremonies and sacrifices, declared as the Epistle to the 
Hebrews shows, the incompleteness and unsatisfactori- 
ness of the then existing order, and pointed to what was 
higher and better. 

7. Was there then no salvation for any who lived and 
died before Christ? 

Yes. Where there was faith that received the assur- 
ance of God's grace and the promise of salvation here- 
after to be provided in a way not understood at the time. 

"Paul cites concerning Abraham (Rom. 4:3), 'He be- 
lieved God and it was counted unto him for righteous- 
ness,' i. e., Abraham knew that God was propitious to him 
only on account of His promise ; he assented to God's 
promise and did not suffer himself to be withdrawn from 
it, although he saw that he was impure, and unworthy ; 
he knew that God offers His promise on account of His 
own truth, and not on account of our works or merits" 
(Melanchthon). 

For further Scriptural proof, see Chapter XI of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews. 

8. What ground is there for saying that the Old Testa- 
ment saints had only a general promise concerning a sal- 
vation hereafter to be provided? 

Eph. 3:5; Luke 10 : 23, 24 ; Heb. 1 1 : 40 ; 1 Peter 1 : 1 1. 



122 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XI. 

CHAPTER XL 

THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 

1. In ivhat relation is the Son of God considered at 
this place? 

Not in His inner Trinitarian relations, but in His 
Mediatorial Office. 

i Tim. 2:5- — "There is one God, one mediator between God and man, 
himself man, Christ Jesus." 

Acts 4:12 — "In none other is there salvation; neither is there any other 
name under heaven, that is given among men, whereby we might be saved." 

2. What is His name with reference to this office? 

Christ. Jesus was the personal name, which, in com- 
mon with many others, He bore because of His human 
nature, even though elevated above the sense in which 
others possessed it (Matt. 1 : 21). It designated Him as 
a man among other men. But Christ, or Messiah, is His 
official name. We would speak more accurately of "Jesus 
the Christ," than of Jesus Christ. Christ is the official 
name of the incarnate Son of God, promised in the Old 
Testament, and actually sent as taught in the New 
Testament. 

3. What is the meaning of "Christ" or "Messiah"? 
The Anointed One. In the Old Testament, prophets, 

priests and kings were solemnly set apart by being 
anointed, as an attestation of official position, and a means 
of conferring grace for the discharge of official duties. 
Prophets (1 Kings 19: 16; Is. 61 : 1) ; Priests (Lev. 4) ; 
Kings (1 Sam. 10: 1; 16: 13; 2 Sam. 2:4). This exter- 
nal anointment with oil was a figure of an inner or spir- 
itual anointing, or designation for office accompanied by 
the necessary gifts for its exercise, as of all believers in 
1 John 2 : 27, and pre-eminently Jesus of Nazareth, 
anointed above all others (Is. 61 : 1, as interpreted by 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. I23 

Luke 4:18; Matt. 12:18), as our Prophet, Priest and 
King, and, therefore, known as Messiah or Christ. 

John 1:41 — "We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the 
Christ." 

4. What other ideas are included in the name 
"Christ"? 

The unity of the Old and New Testaments, the fulfil- 
ment of prophecy, and the historical foundations for 
Christianity in the religion of Israel. 

5. What, therefore, is a prominent subject of argu- 
ment in the New Testament, and how is it proved? 

That Jesus is the Christ. Old Testament prophecies 
are constantly quoted that are found fulfilled in Jesus of 
Nazareth. 

Luke 24:27 — "Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he inter- 
preted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." 45, 46 — 
"Then opened he their minds that they might understand the Scriptures; 
and he said unto them, Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and 
rise again from the dead the third day." Luke 18:31-33; Acts 3:18; 10:43; 
26:22, 23; Rom. 1:2. 

6. Is this, however, the exclusive line of argument by 
which the claims of Jesus are enforced? 

No. In addressing Gentiles, the argument was from 
the Ascension and Resurrection of Jesus to His Lordship 
over all, and, thence to the truth of the Scriptures to 
which He appealed and the fulfilment in Him of all their 
prophecies. This may be seen, e. g., in the sermon of 
Peter to Cornelius in Acts 10 ; first, the Lordship of Jesus, 
as attested by the Resurrection (vs. 35-42) ; secondly, the 
fulfilment in Him of prophecy (v. 43), and His Messiah- 
ship. 

7. What topics are included in Christology, or thai 
portion of Theology treating of the Mediatorial Office? 

The Person, the States and the Offices of Christ. 

8. How has the Church summarized its faith on this 
subject? 

Most comprehensively in the symbol of Chalcedon: 



124 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XI. 

"We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one con- 
sent teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect 
in Manhood ; truly God and truly Man, of a reasonable 
soul and body ; consubstantial with the Father, according 
to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us, according to 
the Manhood ; in all things, except sin, like unto us ; be- 
gotten before all ages of the Father, according to the 
Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our sal- 
vation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, ac- 
cording to the Manhood ; one and the same Christ, Son, 
Lord, Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, 
'inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably' ; 
the distinction of natures being by no means taken away 
by the union, but rather the property of each nature being 
preserved and concurring in One Person and One Sub- 
sistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one 
and the same Son, and only begotten God the Word, the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; as the prophets from the beginning 
have declared concerning Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself has taught us, and the Creed of the Fathers has 
handed down to us." In its simplest form, this truth is 
stated in the Small Catechism, Creed, Article II. 

9. What is the first thing to be considered in treating 
of the Person of Christ? 

That He is true God, consubstantial, coequal and co- 
eternal with the Father. 

The proof for this is given above, Chap. Ill, Sec. 17-23. 
For "consubstantial," see same chapter, Q. 48. 

The divinity of Christ does not consist in divine gifts, 
but in His entire and complete oneness in all His attri- 
butes with God. 

10. What is the second? 

That He is true man, consubstantial with us. The 
proof for this is found in that He has : 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 1 25 

(a) The names of man, as I Tim. 2:5; John 8:40; 
Acts 17:31. His favorite designation of Himself is 
"Son of man." He is called "flesh" (John 1:14), "a 
child" (Acts 4:27), "Son of Abraham, David," etc., 
especially in the genealogical tables of Matthew and 
Luke. 

(b) The parts of a man, body and soul or spirit, and 
various parts of His body are mentioned. 

(c) The experiences of men. He was conceived, was 
born, grew, hungered, thirsted, was fatigued, grieved, 
wept, exulted, died. 

(d) The acts of men. He went about, conversed, etc. 

11. Why did the early Church lay such emphasis upon 
the word "true"? 

Particularly against the Docetists who maintained it 
was not a true body which Christ had, but only the ap- 
pearance of a body. 

12. Upon what arguments did they base this error? 
They said that angels repeatedly appeared in human 

bodies, and yet were not true men ; that the Holy Spirit 
appeared in the form of a dove without being a true dove. 
They quoted Rom. 8 : 3, "God sent his Son in the likeness 
of sinful flesh," laying especial emphasis upon "likeness." 

13. Hozu were they answered? 

Angels assumed human bodies only temporarily, and 
for some transient purpose. Christ Himself declares the 
difference in Luke 24 : 39. 

"Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold 
me having." 

The union of the Spirit with the dove was symbolical ; 
that of the Son of God with man, personal. The former 
was temporary; the latter permanent. The emphasis in 
Rom. 8 : 3 is not on "likeness," but on "sinful ' The 
meaning is the same as in Phil. 2 : 7, "He was "tound it 
fashion as a man," i. e., to all outward appearances, He 



126 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XI. 

was nothing more than any other man — a child like other 
children, a Galilean peasant among Galilean peasants. 
This is not opposed to the truth of His humanity, but is 
contrasted simply with His State of Glory. 

14. What is implied in His true manhood? 
Its completeness or perfection. 

15. Who attacked this? 

Apollinaris, in the Fourth Century, who sought to ex- 
plain the personal union by teaching that the Divine Na- 
ture replaced a part of Christ's humanity, viz., the rational 
soul ; and the Monothelites of the Seventh Century, who 
taught that the Divine Nature took the place of a truly 
human will. 

16. What is meant by saying {hat there is but one 
Person? 

That "there is one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, 
Only-begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures" 
(Chalcedon). "Who although He be God and man; yet 
He is not two, but one Christ ; one, not by conversion of 
the Godhead into flesh, but by taking the manhood into 
God ; one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but 
by Unity of Person" (Athanasian Creed). The differ- 
ence between "me" and "thee" is never applied to the 
divine and human natures. There is but one "I" acting 
and speaking, thinking and feeling and willing through 
both natures. There is but one "Thou" whom the Father 
addresses and one "He" to whom the Spirit bears witness. 

17. What proof have yon of this unity? 

In Rom. 1 : 3, the same person is said to be "made of 
the seed of David according to the flesh," and declared to 
be "the Son of God." In Luke 1 : 3, that which is born 
of the Virgin Mary is called "the Son of God." In John 
1 : 14, "the Word," who is declared in v. 1, to be God, is 
said to have become "flesh." In Gal. 2 : 20, "the Son of 
God" is said to have given Himself for sinful man. 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. \2J 

1 8. Is the person related in the same way to each 
nature? 

The person, with the divine nature, has existed from all 
eternity. The human nature began in time. The person, 
therefore, was once without a human nature. But the 
human nature could not exist without a person. The 
person of the human nature, therefore, came not from 
that nature, but from the divine. Since the human nature 
entered into the world, i. e., was conceived and born and 
lived by the divine person uniting Himself with our race 
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, we say that the human 
nature has no personality of its own, but that the per- 
sonality of the human nature is that which it has derived 
from the divine. The Greek theologians called this the 
doctrine of the anhypostasia of the human nature, which 
our theologians accept, although stating that enhypos- 
tasia is preferable. The unity of the person requires that 
we must hold to the want of personality on the part of 
the human nature. 

19. If zve zuere io affirm that the human nature had a 
personality of its own, what would follow ? 

The doctrine that in Christ, there are two persons, as 
as well as two natures. Unity of personality could be 
taught, then, only by finding place for the destruction at 
some time of the human personality, and its being re- 
placed by the divine. 

20. Since there are two natures, can we say there are 
two Sons, viz., a Son of God and a Son of Man? 

No. There is but one Son, at one and the same time 
Son of God and Son of Man. That through which, He 
is the Son of God, is His eternal generation of the Father, 
"true God begotten of the Father from all eternity" 
(Small Catechism). See Chapter III, 51-53. That 
through which He is the Son of Man is His conception by 
the Holy Ghost and birth of the Virgin Mary (Luke 



128 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL 

I : 35 ; Gal. 4:4). We speak, therefore, of a double gen- 
eration of Christ : one, eternal ; the other, temporal ; one, 
according to the divine ; the other, according to the hu- 
man nature. 

21. By what term is the act of the Son of God in as- 
suming human nature known?-' 

Incarnation. 

John 1:14 — "And the Word became flesh." Heb. 2:14 — "Since the chil- 
dren are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner par- 
took of the same." Heb. 2:16; 1 Tim. 3:16; Rom. 9:5; 1:3. 

22. Was this peculiar io the Second Person of the 
Trinity? 

Onlv the Son of God assumed human nature. But the 
Father who sent the Son into the world, and the Holy 
Spirit who appears in the conception of Christ (Luke 
1:35), just as in creation (Gen. 1:2), were also active. 
There was a special intervention of God in and beyond 
the order of nature established at the creation. God, who 
at creation established an order, in virtue of which men 
came into the world through certain means, can, at His 
will, dispense with such means, and provide for a virgin 
birth. To deny the possibility of this, is to question the 
existence and almighty power of God. To admit its 
reality is to admit the possibility of everything else mys- 
terious and supernatural in Christianity. 

23. The conception of Jesus being so unlike that of 
others, was the human nature that resulted also unlike 
that of other men? 

"He was consubstantial with us according to the man- 
hood ; in all things, except sin, like unto us" (Chalcedon). 

Heb. 4:15 — "He hath been in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin." 

Christ, therefore, experienced all the infirmities that are 
common to the race, as hunger, thirst, sleep, fatigue, tears, 
sorrow, pain ; but no individual infirmities are ascribed to 
Him, as particular diseases which attack some, but do 
not afTect all. 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 120, 

24. Hozv do you prove the sinlessness of Jesus? 

(a) From distinct passages of Scripture as Heb. 4: 15, 
quoted under 23; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26; John 8:46; 
1 Peter 1:19; 2 : 22. 

(b) From His divinity. Sin is a personal matter. It 
is always a person who sins. But the person of Christ 
is God. 

(c) From the definition of sin. "Sin is the want of 
conformity with God's Law." But the Law is the decla- 
ration of God's will. God cannot will what is contrary 
to His will, i. e., Jesus could not sin. 

He was, therefore, not only sinless, but impeccable. 
Admit peccability, and the divinity of Christ is practically 
denied. 

25. But if Christ were impeccable, how do you ex- 
plain His temptation? Is temptation possible, where a 
fall is impossible? 

Temptation properly is only testing or proving. When 
gold is brought to the touch-stone or submitted to the 
blow-pipe or treated with various chemical reagents, there 
is no possibility of any other result than that it will stand 
the test and be proved to be gold. We inevitably asso- 
ciate the thought of temptation with that of the possibility 
of a fall, from the fact that man's nature is corrupt, and 
that even the regenerate are only partially renewed, and, 
therefore fallible, and likely, under the test, to show its 
worst features. 

The agony of our Lord's temptation came not from the 
necessity of a great struggle in order that He might prove 
Himself victor, but from the fact that it was a part of His 
passion. That He, the manifestation of the absolute 
holiness of God, should endure the presence and be sub- 
jected to the humiliation of the conversation and sug- 
gestions of the lowest and vilest of all creatures, the source 
and head of all the crime in the universe, was an indig- 



I30 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL 

nity that called forth all His repugnance to the great 
enemy. 

26. Was there any other particular in which the hu- 
manity of Christ was distinguished from that of others? 

All the excellences and perfections of human nature He 
had in the highest degree. These He possessed as the sin- 
less man, and as the one within whose body the Godhead 
dwelt in a peculiar way. Whatever physical attractive- 
ness He may have had, and for which the old teachers 
cite Ps. 45 : 2, came from His holy character as it was ex- 
pressed in His outward form. While the bodies of others 
contain the seeds of mortality (Rom. 6:23), that of 
Christ was by its own nature immortal, His death occur- 
ring by an act of His will (John 10: 18), and not from 
inner weakness or external force, and His body, after 
death, being incorruptible (Acts 2:31). 

2J. What was the purpose of the Incarnation? 
The Redemption of the human race. 

Matt. 20:28 — "The Son of man came, .to give his life a ranson for many." 
Heb. 2:14 — "He partook of flesh and blood, that, through death, he might 
bring to nought him that had the power of death." 

28. Would the Son of God not have become incarnate 
if Adam had not sinned? 

The doctrine that He would have come only for the 
completion of humanity, or to furnish a model of a holy 
life, or for any other purpose than to rescue men from sin, 
is without any authority from Scripture. God's will or de- 
cree to send His Son into the world everywhere presup- 
poses God's foreknowledge of sin, and His determina- 
tion to provide a remedy for it. 

29. In what two senses is the expression, Personal 
Union, used? 

On the one hand, it designates an act {uniiio), and is 
synonymous with Incarnation. 

On the other hand, it refers to a state, resulting from 
the act (unio). 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. I3I 

30. In what does the state of union consist? 

In that henceforth both natures have but one person — 
the personal communion ; and, as a result, the intimate 
and perpetual personal presence of each nature in and 
with the other. 

31. How has the Church guarded the statement of this 
doctrine? : 

The Chalcedon Symbol (see above, 8) has denned this 
union negatively as : 

(a) Unconfused ( K a<ruy^bzwq') There is no mingling of 
natures. Although there is a communion, they remain 
distinct. 

(b)' Unchanged (azp(-rw^) One is not changed into the 
other. 

(c) Indivisible (adtaipirtos) {, e., with respect to place. 
"Nowhere is the human nature unsustained by the Logos, 
or the Logos not sustaining the human nature. The 
human nature is not outside of the Logos, nor is the 
Logos without the human nature." 

(d) Inseparable (aywpttrrws) i. e., with respect to time. 
The union is never dissolved, but is perpetual. 

(a) and (b) are in opposition to the Eutychians ; (c) 
and (d) in opposition to the Nestorians. The Eutychians 
confused the natures ; the Nestorians divided the person. 

32. How has the Athanasian Creed defined it? 
"Who although He be God and man : yet He is not two, 

but one Christ. 

One ; not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh ; but 
by taking the manhood into God. 

One altogether ; not by confusion of substance, but by 
Unitv of Person. 

For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so 
God and man is one Christ." 

33. What follows from this communion of the Person 
with both natures? 



132 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL 

The communion of natures with each other. There is 
a perichoresis or pervasion or penetration of one nature 
by the other, or existence of one nature within the other. 
"The divine nature is said actually to penetrate or perfect 
the human, and the human to be passively penetrated or 
perfected by the divine ; but not in such way that the 
divine successively occupies one part of the human after 
the other, and extensively diffuses itself, through it ; but, 
since it is spiritual and indivisible, it at the same time 
as a whole perfects and energizes each part of the human 
nature and that nature as a whole, and remains entire in 
the entire human nature, and entire in every part" 
(Baier). 

Col. 2:9 — "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." John 
1:14; Heb. 2:14. 

34. What analogy is there to this communion of 
natures? 

The impartation of the Divine nature by the Mystical 
Union of Christ with the believer. The Personal Union 
being closer, more intimate and more exalted implies a 
more complete communion of natures. 

2 Peter 1 \\ — "He hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great 
promises; that through these ye might become partakers of the divine 
nature." 

35. Because of this Personal Union and the Commun- 
ion of Natures, is it proper to say, "God is man," and 
"man is God"? 

These are known as "Personal Propositions." The 
person may be designated from either nature ; and as there 
is always only one and the same person, this when desig- 
nated from the divine nature as God is the same as the 
person designated from the human nature as man. So 
also we say, "The Son of man" is "the Son of God." 

The doctrine of the Personal Propositions, therefore, is 
that the concrete of the one nature is rightly predicated of 
the concrete of the other. An example of this occurs in 
Jer. 23:6, where the descendant of David is called 'The 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. I33 

Lord our Righteousness," as also in Matt. 16: 16, where 
Jesus is called "the Son of the Living God." 

But the. same is not proper with respect to the abstract 
of the natures. We cannot say, "Divinity is humanity" or 
the reverse. For the concrete always designates the per- 
son, while the abstract refers only to the natures. Neither 
can we say that the "Divine Nature has become incar- 
nate," or "the human has been deified," for here that 
which is proper in the concrete is improper in the abstract. 

Terms also are found expressing at the same time the 
concrete of both natures. "Christ" is such a term. We may 
say, "Christ is God" or "Christ is man," or "Christ is the 
God-man." So our Catechism, "Jesus Christ, true God 
begotten of Father, is true man, born of the Virgin 
Mary." 

36. What other result of the Communion of Natures 
is there? 

The impartation of attributes known among theologians 
as the Communicatio Idiomatum. For since the personal 
union it is impossible to ascribe an attribute to either of 
the natures which does not belong to the person, desig- 
nated from either nature ; neither can there be an act pro- 
ceeding from either nature in which the other does not 
participate. There is a communication from both natures 
to the person, and of the natures to each other. 

37. Classify or give the various kinds or genera of the 
Communicatio Idiomatum. 

First, from one nature to the person, Genus Idiomati- 
cum; secondly, from one nature to the other, Genus 
Majestaticum; thirdly, from both natures to the person, 
Genus Apotelesmaticum. 

38. Define more fully the first genus. 

The Genus Idiomaticum is when the properties of 
either nature are ascribed to the. concrete of the person. 
It is a matter of indifference from which nature this con- 



134 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL 

crete be derived. Take for example the human nature, 
and state one of its properties. Suppose it be "to die." 
Death then belongs to the person. But since it is a mat- 
ter of indifference from which nature the name of the per- 
son be derived, we can say either "man died" or "God 
died"; for God and man are one and the same person. 
Or we may take a property of the divine as "Almighty," 
and predicating it of the person known from the human 
nature, may say, "Man is Almighty." 

39. What stress has been laid by the Lutheran Church 
on this point? 

The Formula of Concord quotes Luther approvingly : 
"If I believe that only the human nature has suffered for 
me, I have a Saviour of little worth. . . . It is the person 
that suffers and dies. Now the person is true God ; there- 
fore it is rightly said : 'The Son of God suffers.' For al- 
though the divinity does not suffer, yet the person which 
is God suffers in His humanity. For the person, the per- 
son, I say, was crucified in His humanity. ... In His 
own nature, God cannot die ; but now God and man are 
united in one person, so that the expression 'God's death' 
is correct, when the man dies who is one thing or one 
person with God" (pp. 631, 632). 

40. Show how this thought of the first genus of the 
Commnnicatio Idomatum underlies the entire theology of 
the Church and the religious experience of Christians. 

The Augsburg Confession (Art. Ill) says: "One 
Christ, true God and true man, was born of the Virgin 
Mary, truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried." 

Our Catechism says : "I believe that Jesus Christ, true 
God begotten of the Father from all eternity . . . has de- 
livered me . . . wth His innocent sufferings and death." 

So Passion hymns coming from the pens of those who 
theoretically may criticise the position above confession- 
ally stated, nevertheless, in the glow of devotion do not 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. 135 

hesitate to present it with full force, as e. g., in the words 
of Isaac Watts : 

"Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, 
Save in the death of Christ, my God." 

and 

"When Christ, the mighty Maker died, 
For man the creature's sin." 

41. What controversy of the early Church centered 
about this genus of ihe Communication 

The Nestorian. The precise point at issue was whether 
it were correct to call the Virgin Mary, theotokos, i. e., 
"the mother of God." Nestorius who denied this was 
condemned, and the formula established that she was "the 
mother of God, according to His human nature." A 
mother of nature without personality she could not be, 
for "mother" and "son" are personal relations. But the 
person of the human nature she brought forth was none 
other than the Son of God. Nevertheless we must em- 
phasize "according to His human nature," for she was 
not mother of God, "according to His divine nature." 
The Decree of Ephesus says, "She brought forth, accord- 
ing to the flesh, the Word of God made flesh." 

42. Upon zvhat Scriptural proofs does this rest? 

(a) Human attributes are ascribed to the concrete of 
the Divine nature. 

Acts 3:15 — "Ye killed the Prince of Life." 

Acts 20:28 — "The Church of the Lord which he purchased with his own 
blood." 

1 Cor. 2:8-^ "Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord 
of glory." 

Gal. 2:20 — "The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." 

Rom. 8:32 — "He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." 

(b) Divine attributes are ascribed to the concrete of the 
human nature. 

John 6:62 — "The Son of man ascending where he was before," 
John 8:48 — "Before Abraham was born, I am." 

(c) Both divine and human attributes and activities are 
ascribed to the concrete of the person designated from 
either or from both natures. 



I36 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL 

1 Peter 3:18 — "Christ was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the 
spirit." 

Rom. 9:5- — "Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning 
the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever." 

Rom. 1 :3 — "His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to 
the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power." 

43. Define the second genus. 

As stated above (37), this has reference to a communi- 
cation from one nature to the other. Since, however, the 
human nature can communicate nothing to the divine — 
for the divine cannot be increased or diminished — the 
communication is entirely from the divine to the human. 
The divine is always active, and the human passive. The 
second genus, therefore, is that according to which the 
Second Person of the Trinity communicates properties 
of His divine nature to His human nature for its posses- 
sion and use. 

44. Does this mean that the properties of the divine 
become those of the human nature? 

No. For as seen above (8, 31, 32), the natures remain 
unchanged, but the properties of the divine nature per- 
vade and exercise themselves in and through the human. 
The properties of fire never become those of iron, but 
when a bar is drawn from the furnace, the properties of 
the fire are active through the iron which it pervades. 
There cannot be a perichoristic (33) union of one nature 
with another, without an impartation of qualities. Elec- 
tricity imparts its properties to the wire which conducts 
it. The soul acts in and through the body which it ani- 
mates. The eye sees, the ear hears, because the soul per- 
vades and energizes the body and renders it receptive to 
external objects in a manner in which they make no im- 
pression when the soul has departed. These illustrations 
are necessarily imperfect and liable to criticism. For as 
our theologians repeatedly have said : "This union is won- 
derfully unique and uniquely wonderful." When we rise 
from the natural to the supernatural, all illustrations offer 



Chap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. I37 

more points of divergence than of agreement. They 
prove nothing ; but only suggest certain analogies. 

45. How has this doctrine been confessionally stated? 
"We hold and teach, with the ancient orthodox church, 

as it explained this doctrine from the Scriptures, that the 
human nature in Christ has received this majesty ac- 
cording to the manner of the personal union, viz., because 
the entire fulness of the divinitv dwells in Christ, not as 
in other holy men and angels, but bodily, as in its own 
body, so that, with all its majesty, power, glory and effi- 
cacy, it shines forth in the assumed human nature of 
Christ, when and as He wills, and in, with and through it, 
exerts its divine power, glory and efficacy, as the soul does 
in the body and fire in glowing iron" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 636). 

46. Upon zvhat Scriptural grounds does it rest? 

'There is a unanimously received rule of the entire 
ancient orthodox Church, that whatever Holy Scripture 
testifies that Christ received in time, He received not ac- 
cording to the divine nature — for, according to this na- 
ture, he has everything from eternity — but the person has 
received it in time, by reason of, and with respect to the 
assumed human nature" (Formula of Concord, 639). 

Such passages are : 

Matt. 11:27 — "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father." 
Matt. 28:18 — "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and upon 

earth." 

John 5:27- — "And hath given him authority to execute judgment, because 

he is a Son of man." 

47. Do the Holy Scriptures particularize any divine at- 
tributes which are especially conspicuous in and through 
the assumed humanity ? 

Yes. (1) Omnipotence, Matt. 28:18; Heb. 2:8; (2) 
Omniscience, Col. 2:3; (3) Power to quicken, John 
6:51; 1 Cor. 15:45; (4) Pozver to forgive sins, Matt. 
9:6; (5) Power to judge, John 5:27; (6) Worship, 



I38 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL 

Phil. 2:9, 10; Heb. 1:8; (7) Omnipresence, Matt. 
18 : 20 ; 28 : 20 ; Eph. 1 : 23 ; 4 : 10. 

48. Are all the divine a: tributes imparted to the human 
nature of Christ? 

Here we must recall the end of the incarnation and of 
the Communicatio Idiomatum, viz., the execution of the 
Mediatorial Office. There is therefore the complete im- 
partation of all such attributes as are needed for this end. 
We must also recall the distinction between the Absolute 
and the Relative Attributes of God (Chap. II, Sec. 
23 sqq.). The Relative or Operative Attributes are im- 
mediately communicated ; but the Absolute, as eternity, 
infinity, immensity, only mediately, or as they character- 
ize a relative attribute, or belong to the person. "The 
soul perichoristically united with the body, imparts to the 
body its life and sensitive faculties, so that the body can 
be said to be living and sentient ; but for this reason, the 
body cannot be said to be spiritual, immortal and invisible 
as the soul ; neither can the calorific and illuminating 
qualities of fire imparted to iron give to it the lightness 
and simplicity of fire" (Hollazius). 

The relative attributes, however, belong, according to 
the genus Idiomaticum, to the person designated from the 
human nature, and we can say Jesus is eternal, etc. 

49. Were the imparted attributes always used? 

As w r e shall learn under the States of Christ, during the 
State of Humiliation, Christ refrained from their full use. 

50. What is the third kind or genus of the Communi- 
catio Idiomatum? 

This is known as the Genus Apotelesmaticum, from 
the Greek Apotelesma, an official act. According to it 
in all the acts of the Mediatorial Office, the person acts 
not through one nature alone, but through both natures, 
each contributing that which is peculiar to itself with 
participation of the other. 



Qiap. XL] THE PERSON OF CHRIST. I39 

51. How has this been confessiohally expressed? 
"The distinction of natures being by no means taken 

away by the union, but rather the property of each being 
preserved and concurring in One Person and One Sub- 
sistence" (Chalcedon Symbol). 

52. Are the natures then separate? 

No. Never separate, but distinct. Distinct, but always 
concurring, each nature according to its peculiar endow- 
ment. When Christ suffered and died, this was according 
to the human nature, for the divine could not suffer or 
die. But the divine sustained the human nature beneath 
the infinite burden of the world's guilt, and imparted to 
the human satisfaction infinite divine efficacy and merit. 
In the prophetical office, it was the mouth and tongue of 
the human nature that spoke, but the revelation of the 
mysteries of the Kingdom of God and the speaking with 
authority came from the divine nature. 

53. What Scriptural proofs are there for this Genus? 
The work of redemption is referred sometimes to the 

concrete of the Divine nature. 

1 John 3:8 — "The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the 
works of the devil." 

Sometimes to the concrete of the human nature. 

Luke 19:10 — "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was 
lost." 

Sometimes to the concrete of both (Heb. 7:21-26; 
1 Tim. 2 : 5 ; 1 John 1:7). 

The argument depends, however, not upon individual 
passages, but upon the entire tenor of Scripture. The 
entire end of the incarnation was the accomplishment of 
that which is attained through the work wrought and the 
sacrifice offered by the one person in and through the con- 
currence of the two natures. 

54. How in general is the doctrine of the Communi- 
catio Idiomatum to be estimated? 

"Whoever has the patience to think out what the 



140 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XT. 

Apostle's words : 'The Word was made flesh' mean, 
cannot regard the doctrine of the Communicatio Idio- 
matum an extravagant fancy of orthodox scholasticism. 
It follows necessarily from the Personal Union. Every 
Christian who prays to Him who is exalted to the Right 
Hand of God, looks with the eyes of his faith upon a 
glorified man, in whom what is human is thoroughly per- 
vaded by what is divine. Even Calvin cannot think of the 
glorified body otherwise than as filled with the powers of 
the divine nature. But it is just this participation of 
Christ's human nature in the attributes of the divine, that 
constitutes the Communicatio Idiomatum" (Kahnis). 

"Mutual communication of properties is the essence of 
every alliance, of all loving communion. Only selfishness 
which would keep all to itself that is its own, resists it ; 
for it desires to part everything and to impart nothing" 
(Sartorius, Divine Love, Eng. Tr., 146). 

55. Is this doctrine of the Communicatio Idiomatum 
offered as a sufficient explanation of the mode in which 
the divine is related to the human in Christ? 

By no means. "Why do we not give God glory, by be- 
lieving, with the simple obedience of faith what Scripture 
teaches, even though we cannot understand or grasp the 
mode, as to how this could occur without equalizing or 
confusing the natures ? For who can sufficiently explain 
or understand the mode of the union, from which this 
communication arises and upon which it depends ? The 
angel answered both Sarah and Mary who asked concern- 
ing the mode : Ts anything too hard for Jehovah ?' 'No 
word of God shall be void of power' (Gen. 18; Luke 
1). . . . The ancients say correctly that if we cannot say 
what God is, we should beware of thinking or saying 
of Him as He is not. So in this article" (Chemnitz, De 
Duabus Naturis, in sq.). 



Chap. XII.] THE STATES OF CHRIST. I4I 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE STATES OF CHRIST. 

1. Upon what is the distinction in the States of Christ 
based? 

Although the communication of divine attributes began 
with the personal union, i. e., with the very conception 
of the human nature, nevertheless they were not only not 
immediately exercised, but two periods are to be clearly 
distinguished, one in which their activity through the 
human nature was, to a great extent, repressed, and an- 
other in which it is fully exercised. The former is called 
the State of Humiliation ; the latter, the State of Exalta- 
tion. 

2. What is the origin of the terms? 

Phil. 2:8, 9— "He humbled himself." "God also highly exalted him." 

The contrast of the ecclesiastical Latin Status Exin- 
anitionis and Status Exaltationis, is based upon verses 7 
and 9. In verse 7, the Vulgate translates the Greek 
iaurov tzlvuHTsy by semet ipsum exinanivit, i. e., "made 
himself empty" or "made himself of none effect." The 
former state is, therefore, literally one "of emptying," or 
"self-renunciation." 

3. Of what is the humiliation or emptying predicated, 
the divine or the human nature? 

Neither without the person. The divine person was 
humbled, but not according to or in the divine nature, 
but according to and in the human nature. 

4. But is not the humiliation synonymous with the 
incarnation? 

By no means. For the Son of God remained incarnate, 
after the humiliation was over. 

5. Did they not coincide in their origin? 

Yes, but the incarnation was permanent ; while the 



142 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

humiliation was temporary. The incarnation itself im- 
plies condescension indeed, but no humiliation ; although 
the mode of incarnation chosen by the Son of God in- 
volved humiliation. Hence we teach that humiliation 
presupposes incarnation, and that it is a state of the in- 
carnate Word, the Logos svaapxos not the Logos a<rapxo$ m 

6. Why do we deny that the humiliation was of the 
divine nature f 

Because God cannot be humbled in His own nature. 
He assumed human nature for the very end that in that 
nature He might experience all that humiliation implied. 

7. But might not the humiliation, or emptying, be a 
mere hiding (xpv<pi<?) of communicated power? 

God's hiding Himself in clouds and darkness or in inac- 
cessible light, is nowhere called an emptying or humilia- 
tion of Himself. 

8. What passage of Scripture is the sedes doctrinae 
concerning the States of Christ? 

Phil. 2: 5-1 1. 

9. Explain the first part of this passage. 

This profound theological paragraph occurs, we may 
say, almost incidentally, in a most direct practical exhorta- 
tion. The Philippians are urged in verse 3 to do nothing 
from motives that would advance the glory of either self 
or any party or faction with which any one might be iden- 
tified. Instead of this, "in lowliness of mind, each should 
esteem other better than himself." To enforce this, the 
example of Christ is cited, who instead of claiming for 
Himself the full honor that was His due, kept it entirely 
in the background. His highest motive was the salvation 
and elevation of fallen men. The description given is that 
of Jesus in His humanity, as He lived among His fellow- 
men, in seeming forgetfulness of self (for this is the 
meaning of Kenosis), intent upon the good of others. 
"Have, then, this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus, 



Chap. XII. ] THE STATES OF CHRIST. I43 

who existing in the form of God, counted not the being on 
an equality with God a thing to be grasped at" (vs. 5, 6). 

10. What then is the meaning of "form of God"? 

It does not point to a condition prior to the incarnation, 
but to one that according to what we have learned (Chap. 
XI, 43-49) continued to exist throughout the entire period 
in which He had also "the form of a servant" (v. 7). It 
was the incarnate Christ who had existed and continued 
to exist in the form of God. 

"Many presumptuously assume 'the form of God' with- 
out 'existing in' it. Such are the devil, Antichrist and the 
sons of Adam. This is regarded by God and all angels 
and saints and even by their own consciences as robbery. 
But Christ existed therein, and had it from His very na- 
ture. For Him to assert it was not robbery, for He re- 
garded it His own natural property" (Luther*). 

The contrast is between actually possessing the divine 
majesty and glory, and grasping after it by those to whom 
it does not belong. 

11. What is the meaning of "emptied himself (v. /)f 
It means that He did not assert Himself, or make a dis- 
play of this majesty and glory. The contrast is between 
others who from "vain glory" constantly boast of what 
they do not possess, and Jesus who, like a ruler moving 
incognito among his subjects, refrains from exercising 
what He actually possesses. 

12. Explain "form of a servant." 

Certainly not the human nature ; for this has been ex- 
alted to the Right Hand of God, since the form of a ser- 
vant has been laid aside. But it means that "He sought 
not His own honor and good, but our profit and salvation. 
It was a willing service, spontaneously undertaken, for the 
good of others. Such service is indescribable, because the 
servant and slave is none other than the indescribable 



^Erlangen Ed. 8:160. 



144 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

person who is the eternal God, whom all angels and all 
creatures serve" (Luther*). 

Matt. 20:28 — "The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister." 

Luke 22:27 — "I am in the midst of you as he that serveth." 

13. "Being made in the likeness of man." 

Like other men, He was conceived and born, was a 
child and grew in wisdom and stature, was an Israelite 
among other Israelites, a Galilean among other Galileans, 
a poor peasant among other poor peasants, with no exter- 
nal mark distinguishing him among the rest. 

14. "And being found in fashion as a man." 

This refers to the continuance of the state introduced 
by the preceding clause. "His experience was that of 
every other man, eating, drinking, sleeping, waking, walk- 
ing, standing, hungering, thirsting, shivering, sweating, 
fatigued, working, clothing Himself, sheltered in a house, 
praying — all things just as others" (Luther). 

15. "Humbled himself." 

That is, He did and suffered what would have been a 
humiliation, if He had been nothing more than a man. 

"He did still more and became less than all men, 
stooped beneath them, and served them with the highest 
service by giving His body and life for us" (Luther). 

16. "Becoming obedient unto death, even the death of 
the cross." 

The humiliation deepens. It descends step by step. The 
Lord of the Law becomes subject to its most minute and 
extreme requirements. The Prince of Life dies ; and His 
death is no ordinary one, but the shameful death of the 
cross (Gal. 3 : 13). 

17. How, then, is the State of Humiliation define df 
It is that in which the Divine Person, according to His 

*Ib. p. 164: 



Chap. XII.] THE STATES OF CHRIST. I45 

assumed human nature, abstains from the full use of the 
divine attributes communicated in the personal union. 

18. Why is this qualified by "according to His 
assumed human nature"? 

Because it is only through this nature that He can be 
humbled and exalted. The Son of God might have come 
to earth as man, with His humanity glorified, as it will 
appear on the Day of Judgment, but the humiliation con- 
sists in the holding of such communicated glory in re- 
serve. 

19. Why is it limited by the word "full"? 

Because He occasionally asserted Himself, as in the 
working of miracles, and at His triumphal entry into 
Jerusalem. 

20. What especially prominent divine ai tributes are 
not fully exercised? 

Omnipotence. For if exercised, His sufferings for our 
sins would not have been rendered. With a glance He 
asserted His power, and the band of soldiers sent to ar- 
rest Him were prostrated. But at once withholding its 
exercise, He submitted Himself, and laid down His life, 
which none could take from Him (John 10: 18). 

Omniscience. He was ignorant of when the Day of 
Judgment would occur (Matt. 24: 36). 

Omnipresence. 

John 11:15 — "I am glad for your sakes, that 1 was not there." 

His possession of all things. 

2 Cor. 8:9 — "Though he was rich, yet tor your sakes he became poor, 
that ye through his poverty, might become rich." Matt. 8:20 — "The Son 
of man hath not where to lay his head." 

21. Hozv long did the State of Humiliation last? 
From the first moment of the conception to the last 

moment in the grave. Phil. 2 : 8, "Even the death of the 
cross" is the extreme limit, including of course not simply 
the act, but the state which followed. 

22. What various stages or grades are enumerated? 



I46 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

Conception and birth, circumcision, childhood, visible 
life among men, passion, death and burial. 

23. How is the humiliation manifest in the conception 
and birih? 

The former is expressed in the Te Deum: "When thou 
tookest upon thee, to deliver man, thou didst not abhor 
the womb of the Virgin." The latter, in the poverty of 
His mother and of His birth-place. 

24. What is involved in the controversy concerning 
the article cf the Creed, "Conceived by the Holy Ghost, 
born of the Virgin Mary"? 

'They who deny the birth of the God-man of the Vir- 
gin Mary, will always question also the pre-existence and 
deity of Christ in general ; and therefore also the union 
and reconciliation of God and man in Him. They who 
will not leave unchallenged the new birth through crea- 
tive interposition of a second original man into the old 
human nature, regard Christianity in general as only the 
perfecting and not the renovation of humanity. They 
know only of a gradual improvement of man, but nothing 
at all of the new creature in Christ Jesus" (Sartorius, 
Divine Love, p. 138 sq.). 

25. How is the humiliation manifest in the circum- 
cision? 

It was the solemn act by which Christ formally declared 
and assumed the obligation to fulfil the entire law on 
man's behalf, and "by which God the Father removed the 
intolerable yoke of the Law from the human race and 
placed it upon His incarnate Son." "For with respect to 
His own person, He was not under the Law ; but by cir- 
cumcision He was made under the Law for us" 
(Gerhard). 

Gal. s :3-; — "I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that 
he is a debtor to do the whole law." Rom. 2:25 — "For circumcision indeed 
profiteth, if them be a doer of the Law." 



Chap. XII. ] THE STATES OF CHRIST. 147 

26. How in His childhood? 

He lived in a despised village among rough neighbors, 
and amidst narrow and contracted surroundings ; was 
contemptuously called "a Nazarene," by the more culti- 
vated of His race and nation ; was subject to Mary and 
Joseph, although their Lord (Luke 2:51); learned the 
trade of Joseph and worked with His own hands for a 
livelihood (Mark 6: 3), and submitted even to unjust and 
harsh rebukes (Luke 2:48). 

26. How in His visible life among men? 
Answered above, 15. 

27. How in His passion f 

In its widest sense, this embraces all the afflictions and 
sorrows He endured, His temptation in the wilderness 
(Matt. 4; see Chap. XI : 25), the slanders, reproaches and 
plots of adversaries ( Matt. 12 : 24 ; John 7 : 1 ; 8 : 6 ; 9 : 16, 
12), hunger, thirst, fatigue, poverty, etc., beginning with 
the massacre of the infants at Bethlehem and the flight 
into Egypt. In its narrower sense, it is the extremity of 
suffering which He experienced at the very close of His 
life (Matt. 20: 18, 19). 

28. Were His sufferings only bodily? 

They pertained to both soul and body. He suffered as 
He foresaw them in the future (Matt. 12:50) and par- 
ticularly as the crisis approached (Luke 22:44; Matt. 
26:38; Mark 14:33). The ingratitude of the Jews, the 
treachery of Judas, the cowardice of the disciples, the de- 
nial of Peter, the false accusations, the ridicule and in- 
sults of the soldiers and of the rabble, all inflicted deep 
wounds. 

29. What was the culmination of these sufferings? 
The sense of God's wrath which found expression in 

the complaint that He was forsaken. 

Matt. 27:46 — "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

Nevertheless this was tempered by the word "my," de- 



I48 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

daring an inner consciousness, beneath the seeming sepa- 
ration, of His union and communion with God. This 
word, was "a witness of His triumphant faith, standing 
the test of the extreme death-struggle" (Van Oettingen). 

30. Hozv did this suffering differ from that endured 
by others, so as to add to its intensity ? 

He bore the sins of the world (John 1:29). Others 
are sustained and consoled by the assurance of the sym- 
pathy and vicarious sufferings of Christ. He faced the 
storm in all its fury alone, except so far as His union 
with the Father and the Spirit afforded Him comfort. 

31. What of His bodily sufferings? 

No part of His body escaped. Gerhard's hymn, "O 
Sacred Head now wounded," and Bernard's "Salve caput 
cruentatum" dwell on this. 'Thorns pierce the divine 
head ; paleness, saliva and blood mar His countenance ; 
His eyes are almost ruptured by the fists of His enemies ; 
blows descend repeatedly on His cheeks ; His ears are 
tortured by horrid blasphemies and reproaches ; a kiss is 
imprinted on His mouth as a sign of betrayal ; chains bind 
His hands, and nails pierce them as well as His feet ; His 
shoulders are burdened with the cross ; His back and 
breast and arms are torn by the scOurge ; His tongue is 
tortured by thirst and the bitterness of the myrrh ; His 
side is pierced by a spear ; His whole body already a mass 
of wounds is stretched and tortured on the cross" 
(Quenstedt). 

32. What must be particularly observed in connection 
zvith these sufferings? 

They were not merely such as seemed to be endured, but 
were true and real (Is. 53:4). They were borne volun- 
tarily, not by constraint or force (Heb. 10: 7). They oc- 
curred not accidentally, but in accordance with a divine 
plan (Acts 2 : 23 ; 4 : 28) . 

33. What was involved in the death of Christ? 



Chap. XII.] THE STATES OF CHRIST. I49 

The dissolution of the natural union between His soul 
and body, but not of the union between the divine and 
human natures. 

34. What is the meaning of Christ's dying words, "It 
is finished"? {John 19:30.) 

That, with His death, all prophecy is fulfilled, the types 
and shadows of the ceremonial law have reached their 
end, the work for which He had been sent to earth in ac- 
cordance with God's eternal decree is at last completed, 
all the penalties alloted to sin and sinners have been en- 
dured, the rage of His enemies against Him and His 
people has found its limit, and, above all, redemption is 
now perfected. "Hence the propitiatory sacrifice which 
Christ made for us on the altar of the cross is not im- 
perfect, or insufficient or only half obtained, but is perfect, 
complete and absolute" (Gerhard, in "Harmony"). 

Heb. 10:14 — "By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 
sanctified." 

(See also Chapter XIV, 14-16.) 

35. What place had the burial of Christ? 

It attested the truth of His death, and consecrated the 
grave as the resting place of believers. 

36. Define the State of Exaltation. 

It is that in which Christ, according to His human na- 
ture, fully exercises the communicated attributes of the 
divine nature. 

37. Has it its stages or degrees? 

Yes. In this respect, it is like the State of Exalta- 
tion. The definition, strictly taken, belongs only to its 
culmination (1 Cor. 15:27, 28), although relatively true 
at the very first stage or grade. 

38. When did the Siate of Exaltation begin? 

With the quickening or union of soul and body in the 
grave. 



I50 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

39. What confessional difference is there on this 
point? 

The Reformed Church regards "the descent into hell'' 
as a part of the humiliation ; the Lutheran Church, as we 
shall see, regards it the first grade of the State of Exal- 
tation. 

1 

40. What determines this difference? 

The fact that the Lutheran Church regards 1 Peter 
3 : 18, 19 as the sedes doctrinae, and the Reformed Church 
Acts 2 : 27. 

41. Why do we not regard the latter passage as refer- 
ring to the descent? 

Because the true meaning of the passage is, as A. R. 
V. translates : 

"Thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades," 

not "in Hades," as it has been misinterpreted, but "unto 
Hades." The thought is : "My soul shall not be delivered 
over to the power of death." There is no reference here 
to any "descent." 

42. What appears prominently in 1 Peter 3: 18, 19? 
The fact that the descent occurred after the "quicken- 
ing," or reunion of soul and body. 

"Being put to death in the flesh, but' made alive in the spirit, in which 
also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison." 

43. What is the confessional definition of this article? 
It is guarded with the greatest caution and earnestly 

warns against laying importance upon speculations as 
to details. 

"We simply believe that the entire person, God and 
man, after the burial descended into hell, conquered the 
devil, destroyed the power of hell, and took from the devil 
all his might. We should not, however, trouble ourselves 
with sublime and acute thoughts, as to how this occurred" 
(Formula of Concord, 643). "How this occurred we 
should reserve until the other world, where not only this 
point, but also still others will be removed, which we here 



Chap. XII. ] THE STATES OF CHRIST. I5I 

simply believe, and cannot comprehend with our blind 
reason" (p. 522). 

44. Could the preaching to the spirits in prison have 
been a preaching of the Gospel? 

No. The word in the Greek is not the word for 
"preaching the Gospel," euaggelizo, but kerusso, which 
means simply "to publish" or "proclaim." Undoubtedly, 
this might mean to "proclaim the Gospel," if the 
thought were expressed in other parts of Holy Scrip- 
ture. There is no warrant, however, for believing that 
any opportunity for hearing the Gospel will be given after 
death. If it were so, then, since the Gospel would be 
preached to the large majority after death, and under 
circumstances rendering the appeal even more forcible 
than in this world, where the veil of sense conceals the 
realities of the world to come, this life could not be called 
the "accepted time," "the day of salvation," the period of 
grace (2 Cor. 6:2), when all men everywhere are com- 
manded to repent (Acts 17 : 30). It would be only a pre- 
paratory dispensation, the portal or vestibule to that 
which is to come. (See Chapter XXXV, 17.) 

45. But is there not a reference to a preaching of the 
Gospel to the dead in the immediate context to 1 Peter 
3:18, 19, viz., in 1 Peter 4:6, "For to this end was the 
Gospel preached even to the dead"? 

This does not mean that the Gospel was preached to 
them since they have died, but that those now dead once 
heard the Gospel just as those to whom the Apostle was 
writing. In verse 5, there is a reference to the day of 
judgment, when "the living and the dead" are to be 
judged. As this refers to a judgment of those now dead 
after they have been quickened, so in verse 6, "dead" 
means those now dead, while they lived on earth. They 
who had heard and believed the Gospel are chiefly in 
mind. The day of their deliverance is here foretold. 



152 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

46. Why is there a special allusion to the antediluvians 
as those to whom Christ preached? 

Their open defiance and ridicule of Noah as a preacher 
of righteousness was typical of those who, in Peter's days, 
"mocked" preachers of the Gospel (2 Peter 3:3, 4). The 
discomfiture of the antediluvian mockers when Christ 
proclaimed His victory in the spirit world, was typical 
of the fate of all who similarly array themselves against 
His cause. 

47. Did this proclamation of Christ's victory extend 
also to the saints of the Old Testament, who died in faith 
of the promises fulfilled by His death and resurrection ? 

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that by this preach- 
ing, they were released from the so-called limbns pairum 
and transferred to heaven. Of this, however, Scripture 
says nothing. As a matter of speculation, we may regard 
it probable that the proclamation of victory announced to 
one class to their terror was made to another class, to 
their joy and triumph. We dare not think of those who 
departed in faith as until then "in prison." 

48. According to which nature did Christ make the 
descensus? 

The Divine Person descended into hell, according to the 
human nature. 

49. What, then, are the grades of the State of Exalta- 
tion? 

The Descent into Hell, Resurrection, Ascension and 
Session at the Right Hand of God. 

50. What is the Resurrection? 

The act by which Christ brought forth from the sepul- 
chre His body, and by various tests and at various times 
showed Himself alive to His disciples, as a proof of His 
divine authority, an evidence of the completion of His 
work of Redemption, and a confirmation of faith in the 
future resurrection of the dead. 



Chap. XII. ] THE STATES OF CHRIST. I53 

51. Was the resurrection an act peculiar to the Son? 
All three persons of the Trinity were active, as in all 

external acts of God. 

Eph. 1 : 20 declares that the Father raised Christ from 
the dead (cf. Rom. 6:4; Col. 2: 12). John 10: 17, Christ 
says that He takes up His life of Himself. In Rom. 8:11 
it is said that the Spirit raised up Jesus from the dead. 

52. When did Christ rise from the dead? 

On the third day, as Scripture repeatedly declares and 
the Church confesses. Jewish computation counts each 
day during which He was dead as one, whether it be the 
whole or only a part. There was one day, and parts of 
two others, the Jews reckoning their time from sunset 
to sunset. 

53. What were the characteristics of His resurrection 
body? 

(a) It was a true body. 

Luke 24:39 — "Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and blood 
as ye see me having." To prove this "He ate before them" (v. 43). 

(b) It was the same body which He had before, with 
the print of the nails, and the scar of the spear (John 
20:25, 27). 

(c) It was a glorified body. 

Phil. 3:21 — "Who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that 
it may be conformed to the body of his glory." 

54. What is meant by "a glorified body''? 

Since in the passage just quoted, it is declared that the 
resurrection body of believers is to be fashioned after that 
of Christ, and in i Cor. 15 : 42-44, there is a description of 
the resurrection body of believers, it follows that that of 
Christ possesses in the highest degree what is there de- 
scribed. All is summed up in the expression a "spiritual 
body." "A spiritual body," however, is not a body which 
is transformed into spirit. For there is a contrast between 
the body in the present life, as a "psychical" or soul body, 
and in the resurrection as a "spiritual" body. But since 



154 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

the "psychical body" is not body that is "soul," but one 
that has the properties of the soul (cf. above, Chap. VII, 
13), the spiritual body is one that has the properties of the 
spirit. The reference is to a higher grade of endowments 
than those which we know now. In virtue of this, even 
before His death and resurrection, Christ walked upon 
the waves of the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 14: 25), and after 
the resurrection, entered a room, even though the doors 
were closed (John 20:19), and vanished at will (Luke 
24:31, or suddenly made His presence known (Mark 
16: 12). (See Chap. XXXVI, 12-16.) 

55. How do you explain the possession of these en- 
dozmnents as in Matt. 14:25, even before the resurrection? 

In virtue of the personal union, they were possessed 
throughout the entire State of Humiliation, although not 
ordinarily exercised. But with the State of Exaltation, 
they are freely exercised. 

56. Docs this same principle obtain in applying the 
terms "glorify'' and "glorified" ? 

Yes. During the State of Humiliation, in one sense, 
Jesus, according to His human nature, was "not yet glo- 
rified" (John 7:39; 17:2, 5), i. e., He did not exercise 
the honor and power that were His. But, in another 
sense, He was glorified, whenever He permitted them to 
shine forth, as in His miracles (John 2: 11). Because in 
His body dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9), 
it had these spiritual properties from the beginning, but 
their use was kept in abeyance and reserved for the State 
of Exaltation. 

57. Why was the stone rolled away from the door of 
the sepulchre? 

Not because its presence prevented the coming forth 
of Christ, for, as He penetrated walls with His resurrec- 
tion body, He could with equal ease have penetrated the 
sealed rock, but in order to afford His disciples and the 



Chap. XII. ] THE STATES OF CHRIST. 1 55 

faithful women a sure proof that the tomb was empty. 
There is nothing in the record to show that the resurrec- 
tion was subsequent to the rolling away of the stone. 

58. Why has the resurrection of Christ such promi- 
nence in the preaching and teaching of the Apostles? 

(a) Because our Lord appealed to it as the test of the 
truth of His claims (Matt. 16:21; 17:9; John 2:19), 
and to the early Christians it was the greatest of all proofs 
of His divine authority, and especially of His Godhead 
(Rom. 1:4; 1 Cor. 15:14-19; Acts 2:32; 3:15; 

4 '-33, etc.). 

(b) Because it attested the perfection of the righteous- 
ness acquired by Christ's mediation. He was man's sub- 
stitute. As such He bore man's sins and died, the just 
for the unjust. If death had held Him fast, it would have 
bound us. But as death cannot hold Him, we are free ; 
He has satisfied the law ; and His righteousness procured 
for us surpasses all the powers of death. 

Rom. 4:25 — "Who was delivered up for our trespasses, and raised again 
for our justification." 

i. e., just as our sins caused His death, so our potential 
justification, or the full provision He has made for our 
justification, caused His resurrection. 

(c) Because it is the pledge of our own resurrection. 

1 Cor. 15:20 — "But now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the first- 
fruits of them that are asleep." 2 Cor. 4:14. 

(d) Because from it flows the applying grace of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Rom. 6:4 — "That like as Christ was raised from the dead through the 
glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life." 

59. What place does the resurrection of Christ have 
in Apologetics? 

"The resurrection of Christ is a fact. It is the fixed 
point to which the threads of all Apologetics will ever be 
attached. Apologetics will always have to start from the 
resurrection of Christ. He is historically proved by it 
to be the personal miracle. The awakening of Jesus from 



I56 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

the dead is the great miracle which contains and carries 
those mighty deeds performed by Him and recorded in 
the Gospels, as also those which were done in His name. 
In short by His resurrection, He is declared to be the 
Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness ; 
in Him the world is fully overcome, and God is glorified. 
From this, too, the existence of a living and life-giving 
God is proved. From ignorance of the power of God, 
Paul and Jesus in common, explain the denial of a resur- 
rection (1 Cor. 15:39; Matt. 22:29)" (Auberlen). A 
Church historian whose free criticism of Christianity has 
deservedly been subjected to the criticism of scholars who 
have followed him, viz., F. C. Baur, correctly affirmed 
that the energy and enthusiasm which imparted to the 
early Church its aggressive force and made it victorious 
was "the conviction that the resurrection of Jesus was the 
most fixed and incontrovertible certainty." 

60. What is the Ascension of Christ? 

"The visible and glorious triumph of Christ as victor, 
raising His body above the clouds, and then, in an in- 
visible way, extending it above all heavens, so as to oc- 
cupy His Kingdom unto the end of the world, and every- 
where, in a heavenly manner, afford us aid" (Calovius). 

61. May it not have been a mere disappearance as, in 
Gen. ij:22, God is said to have gone up from Abraham? 

No, for the disciples saw him depart by a visible and 
local motion (Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9), in virtue of the 
endowments of a glorified and supernatural body, as He 
entered upon a higher degree of the use of His Majesty 
than He had exercised during the period between the 
Resurrection and Ascension. "It was a true and real as- 
cension, the body being raised above the earth. See Acts 
I : 9. Nevertheless it is not to be excessively scrutinized 
or defined according to the natural mode, so that the pres- 
ence upon earth of the body which was raised to heaven is 



Chap. XII. ] THE STATES OF CHRIST. 157 

denied. For it is not only in heaven, but we read in 
Eph. 4: 10, that 'He ascended far above all the heavens 
that He might fill all things' " (Baier). 

62. What is the heaven which Christ entered? 

Not the visible, astronomical heaven, which is its sym- 
bol, but the state or condition within which the glory of 
God is most fully displayed. 

John 17:5 — "And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with 
the glory which I had with thee before the world was." 

63. What was the end of the Ascension? 

First of all, His glorious triumph (Eph. 2: 15). Then 
although, according to his promise, never absent on earth 
until the end of the world (Matt. 28:20), nevertheless 
He withdrew His visible presence, that He might send the 
Holy Spirit (John 16:7), prepare abodes in heaven for 
believers (John 14:2), and train them to believe in Him 
as though absent. 

John 20:29 — "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." 
I Peter 1:8 — "Whom not having seen ye love; on whom though now ye 

see him not, yet believed, ye rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full 

of glory." 

64. What exhortation and consolation are given by 
the Ascension? 

The exhortation. 

Col. 3:1, 2 — "If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things 
that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God," etc. 

The consolation. 

John 17:24 — "Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me, 
be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." 

65. What is the Session at the Right Hand of God? 

It is manifest that neither "Right Hand," nor "sitting" 
can be taken literally. To localize the "Right Hand" is in 
conflict with God's spirituality. The Right Hand of 
God is declared to be omnipresent. 

Ps. 139:7-10 — "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I 
flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I 



I58 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XII. 

make my bed in Sheol, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the 
morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy 
hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me." 

66. What is meant by referring various organs and 
parts of the human body to God? 

The eye and ear symbolize His knowledge and care. 

Ps. 34:15 — "The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous, and his ears 
are open unto their cry." 

The finger symbolizes the union of power and wisdom. 

Luke 11:20 — "If I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the 
kingdom of God come upon you." 

The arm, His omnipotent power. 

Luke 1:51 — "He hath shewed strength with his arm." 

The feet, His absolute dominion and sovereignty. 

Ps. 8:6 — "Thou hast put all things under feet." 

The arm and right hand are frequently united to indi- 
cate power in various manifestations. 

Deut. 5:15 — "Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand 
and by an outstretched arm." 

Ps. 89:13 — "Thou hast a mighty arm. Strong is thy hand, and high is 
thy right hand." 

The Right Hand denotes, therefore, the power and 
majesty of God in the very highest degree. 

Ex. 15:6 — "Thy right hand, O Jehovah, is glorious in power. Thy right 
hand, O Jehovah, dashes in pieces the enemy." 

Ps. 18:35 — "Thy right hand hath holden me up." 21:8 — "Thy right hand 
will find out those that hate thee." 

Hence it is called "the Right Hand of Power" (Matt. 
26:64), "the Right Hand of Majesty" (Heb. i 13), "the 
Right Hand of the throne of Majesty" (Heb. 8:1), "the 
Right Hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12: 2). 

6y. Coming back to question 64, what, then, is meant 
by Christ's sitting at the Right Hand of God? 

It is the full participation of the human nature of Christ 
in God's reign over all things in heaven and earth. Christ, 
the divine person, according to His human nature, exer- 
cises fully the sway over all things which belonged to 



Chap. XIII. ] CHRIST AS PROPHET. I59 

Him in the human nature, as well as the divine, from the 
first moment of the personal union.* 

68. Is it synonymous zvith "reigning" ? 

Not exactly. It is reigning with a certain end in view. 
For this, be it noted, is a stage in His Mediatorial Office, 
and is directed towards the salvation of men. It is the 
administration by Christ, according to His human nature, 
of the three-fold Kingdom, of Power, Grace and Glory, 
the application of redemption. 

69. How is this declared in our Confessions? 

"He ascended into heaven, that He might it on the 
Right Hand of the Father, and forever reign, and have 
dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that believe 
in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their hearts, to 
rule, comfort and quicken them, and to defend them 
against the devil and the power of sin" (Augsburg Con- 
fession, Art. III). 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE OFFICES OF CHRIST CHRIST AS PROPHET. 

i. What relation has the contents of the two preceding 
chapters to what is now to be treated? 

The Personal Union and the two States of Christ are 
means ; the Offices of Christ are the end, i. e., the Son of 
God became incarnate and humbled Himself and was ex- 
alted in order to be our Prophet, Priest and King. 

*As contrasted with other statements in which the Reformed seem to 
antagonize Lutheran teachers on this subject, reference may be made to 
the admirable explanation ot Calvin on Eph. 1:20. 

"This passage clearly shows what the Right Hand of God means, viz., 
not any locality, but the power which the Father conferred upon Christ, in 
order that, in his name, the latter should administer the government of 
heaven and earth * * God is said to have raised Christ to his Right 
Hand, because he made him associate in the government, and through him 
he exercises all his power * * Inasmuch as the Right Hand ot God fills 
heaven and earth, it follows that the Kingdom, as well as the power of 
Christ is universally diffused. Hence they are in error, who, from Christ's 
sitting at the Right Hand of God, endeavor to prove that Christ is only 
in heaven." 



l6o A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIII 

2. What three things belong to the Mediatorial Office ? 

(a) The Revelation of God's Will. 

(b) The Preparation of Redemption. 

(c) The Application of Redemption. 

The first is comprised in His office of Prophet, the 
second, in that of Priest ; and the third, in that of King. 

3. What Scriptural ground is there for this distinc- 
tion? 

He is called Prophet. 

Acts 3:32 — "Moses indeed said, A prophet shall the Lord God raise up 
unto you froin among your brethren like unto me." 

Matt. 11:9 — "A prophet? Yea, and I say unto you, much more than a 
prophet." 

Priest. 

Heb. 4:14 — "Having then a great high priest who hath passed through 
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." 7:17 — "For it is witnessed of him, 
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek." 

King. 

Matt. 21:5 — "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold thy King cometh 
unto thee." Rev. 17:14 — "The Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord 
of lords and Kings of kings." 

4. What is the meaning of "prophet" ? 

Not simply, or chiefly one who predicts, but the inter- 
preter or spokesman of God. The word "pro" means 
"forth" rather than "before" in a temporal sense. "Elijah 
and Paul were prophets, not because they foretold the fu- 
ture, but because they enlightened the present'"' (Stanley, 
as quoted by Century Dictionary). Daniel was as truly a 
prophet when he interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnez- 
zar as when he foretold future events. 

5. What, then, is the Prophetic Office? 

It is that by which Christ declares to men, for all time, 
and for all places, the nature and will of God. 

John 1:18 — "No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, 
who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him." Heb. 1:2 — 
"God hath, at the end of these days, spoken unto us in his Son." Mark 
9:7 — "This is my beloved Son; hear ye him." 

The word of the Father, spoken at the Transfiguration, 
means, "There is no reason why you should lament the 



Chap. XIII. ] CHRIST AS PROPHET. l6l 

departure of Moses and Elias. Here is my Son who will 
teach you, as well as all who follow you until the end of 
time, fully and plainly, all that you need to know concern- 
ing me and my will and the world to come. Hear ye 
Him." 

6. What does this imply? 

That "all who would think or speculate in a saving 
manner concerning God must make all things subordinate 
to the humanity of Christ" (Luther, de Wette I, 226). 
"For this end, God had His Son to become incarnate, in 
order to withdraw us from the contemplation of His 
majesty, to that of His flesh" (Melanchthon, "Loci Com- 
munes,'' I ed.). Christ is thus the great and only Revealer 
of God to man. A great American preacher, of another 
Church, has expressed this with great force : "Why do I 
believe in God ? If some man asked me, when on the 
street, I think, I should have an answer to give him. I 
could give one great reason — two great reasons which are 
really one great reason — why I believe in God. I believe 
in God, my friends, I believe in God with all my soul, be- 
cause this world is inexplicable without Him and expli- 
cable with Him, and because Jesus Christ believed in 
Him ; and it was Jesus Christ that showed me that this 
world demanded God and was inexplicable without Him, 
and that made certain every suspicion and dream that I 
had had before" (Phillips Brooks, "Addresses," p. 56). 
In revealing God to man, Christ also revealed man to him- 
self : "Not only do we know God only through Jesus 
Christ, but we know ourselves only through Jesus 
Christ. We know life and death only by Him. Except 
hy Jesus Christ, we know not what life is, nor what death 
is, nor what God is, nor what we ourselves are" (Pascal, 
"Thoughts"). 

7. Bat was there no revelation of God to men prior 
to the incarnation? 



l62 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIII. 

Yes. But this revelation was partial, incomplete and 
preparatory. 

Heb. 1:1, 2 — "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the 
prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of 
these days spoken unto us in his Son." 

Beside this, whatever revelations they made came to 
them through the Son, as the Word, or Revealer of God. 
They were the reflection of the light which was approach- 
ing in the advent of the Son. 

1 Peter 1:10, 11 — "The prophets sought and searched diligently who 
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what time or 
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them did point 
unto." 

8. Who is by pre-eminence the great prophet of the 
Old Testament, and how is the Old Testament prophetic 
office contrasted with that of Christ ? 

Moses ; between whom as the prophet of the Old Testa- 
ment, and Christ as the prophet of the New Testament, 
the contrast is frequently drawn (Deut. 18: 15-18; John 
1:21, 25; Acts 3:22; 7:37). The former received that 
which he taught externally by revelation of God in the 
Mount (Heb. 8:7) ; the latter by His anointing, i. e., a 
peculiar gift of the Holy Spirit with His human nature, 
as the temple of the Godhead bodily, and the incarnate 
Word of God (Is. 61 : 1 ; John 1 : 14). It was the duty 
of the Old Testament prophets and Moses as the greatest 
to declare: "Thus saith the Lord." It was the preroga- 
tive of Christ to proclaim : "Verily, verily, I say unto 
you." It was for them to declare the authority of God's 
word. But none but Christ could say : "Heaven and earth 
shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away" 
(Matt. 24:35). 

9. What was the subject of Christ's teaching? 
Both Law and Gospel. 

10. How did He teach the Lazvf 

(a) By republishing it, without the Rabbinnical addi- 
tions by which it had been overlaid and obscured, and 



Chap. XIII. ] CHRIST AS PROPHET. 1 63 

without the ceremonial and forensic elements, which be- 
longed only to the Old Testament, (b) By indicating 
its spiritual character and application. 

n. Where was this especially done? 

In the Sermon on the Mount, which is a restatement of 
the Law, with a presentation of its spiritual application, 
introductory to the declaration of the Gospel. 

12. In what words does Christ make most clear his 
relation to the Law? 

Matt. 5:17, 18 — "Think not that I came to destroy the law or the pro 
phets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till 
heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
away from the law, till all things be accomplished." 

13. How was this further enforced? 

By His holy example, in complying with all the precepts 
of the Law, both in letter and in spirit. His life was a 
model and standard as to how the two tables of the Law 
are to be fulfilled. There is no object lesson so complete 
in all its details and so impressive in its effects, as that 
presented in the record of His visible intercourse among 
men. 

Matt. 22:42 — "Not my will, but thine be done." 

Phil. 2:5 — "Have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus." 

Rom. 15:2, 3 — "Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which 

is good unto edifying. For Christ also pleased not himself." 

1 Peter 2:21 — "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, 

that ye should follow his steps." 

Luke 16:24 — "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, 

and take up his cross, and follow me." 

14. Was the preaching of the Law by Christ merely a 
reaffirmation of its principles, or was it accompanied also 
by a reaffirmation of the authority of the Old Testament 
Scriptures? 

We need only refer to His frequent appeals to the 
authority of Scripture : 

Matt. 21:42 — "Did ye never read in the Scriptures?" 22:22 — "Ye do 
err, not knowing the Scriptures." 26:52 — "That the Scriptures of the 
% prophets might be fulfilled." 

Luke 24:45 — "Then opened he their minds that they might understand 
the Scriptures." 



164 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIII. 

As well as to His customary formula, "It is written" 
(Matt. 4:4, 6, 7, 10; 11 : 10; 21 : 13; 26: 24, 31 ; Mark 
7:6; 9: 12; 11 : 17; 14:21, 27, etc.). 

According to the teaching of Jesus, it was sufficient 
that a passage appealed to was in the canon of the Old 
Testament as received by the Jewish Church of His 
period, to make it authoritative (John 10:34). 

15. But did not His leaching contain a criticism of 
the Law? 

Undoubtedly, as in passages where He leads His hear- 
ers from the treatment of the merely external side of the 
Law to its deeper meaning, i. e., from the shell to the ker- 
nel, as in Matt. 5 : 21-48, or where He exacts more than 
its merely provisional prescriptions allowed, as in Matt. 
19:7-12. His criticism has to do not with the books or 
the text of the Old Testament, but entirely with its ma- 
terial, which, while of equal obligation for those upon 
whom it was enjoined, must be divided, in the light of the 
coming of*Christ, into that which belongs to the forensic 
and ceremonial laws, and is, therefore, of only temporary 
value, and that which belongs to the Moral Law, and, 
therefore, permanent. (Chapter XXV, 16, 27-33.) 

John 1:17 — "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came 
through Jesus Christ." 

16. Was the preaching of the Law the main object of 
this office? 

No. 

The Law He preached, because men had forgotten and 
perverted what Moses had taught them. He showed how 
the most searching spiritual requirements were taught 
even by Moses (Matt. 22:36-40), 

The Formula of Concord (508), therefore, calls "the 
preaching of Moses and the Law" "a strange work of 
Christ" (see Is. 28: 21), subordinate "to His proper office, 
to preach grace, console and quicken, which is properly 
the preaching of the Gospel." 



Chap. XIII.] CHRIST AS PROPHET. 165 

17. What is included in the Gospel ? 

All things pertaining to His person and work an- 
nounced in order to call forth and sustain faith (Chapter 
XXV, 34-39). Tne teaching of doctrine is subordinate 
to the bringing of men to a knowledge of the Son Him- 
self, and through the Son to a knowledge of the Father. 

Matt. 11:27- — "Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and 
he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." 1 John 4:9 — "Herein was the 
love of God manifested in us, that God hath sent his only begotten Son into 
the world." 

18. The Prophetic Office embraces, then, more than 
the function of teaching? 

It includes also the impartation of spiritual power 
whereby through the Holy Spirit He moves men's hearts 
to embrace the doctrine of the Gospel (John 6: 45). 

19. What two stages of this office are there? 

The Immediate and the Mediate. The former was 
when Christ, in His own person instructed men. The 
latter He exercised through the Apostles, and through all 
who preach the Word and by their lives bear witness to 
the faith, until the end of time. 

John 20:21 — "As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Luke 
10:16 — "He that heareth you, heareth me." Eph. 4:11-13. 

20. Was there progress in Christ's teaching? 

The contents of the Gospel were not announced in all 
their fulness at once. Christ adapted His teaching to the 
capacity of those whom He taught. 

John 16:12 — "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now." 

Mark 4:34 — "And without a parable, spake he not unto them; but private- 
ly to his own disciples, he expounded all things." 

His sufferings and death He did not announce until 
they were immediately impending. Neither was their 
significance realized until after His ascension and the gift 
of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Even after Pentecost, 
the universality of redemption and the complete freedom 
of the Christian from the Mosaic ritual were only gradu- 
ally apprehended, and amid considerable controversy in 



l66 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIII. 

the Apostolic Church, as the Book of Acts clearly shows. 
The gift of the Holy Spirit as the Great Teacher was to 
be apprehended and utilized through the struggles of be- 
lievers towards the light. 

John 16:26 — "But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom the Father 
shall send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring to your re- 
membrance all that I said unto you." 

21. What were the seals of His Prophetic office? 
His miracles (John 3:2; Luke 24: 19). 

22. What zvas their special function ? 

John 20:30, 31 — "Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence 
of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written 
that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." 

On this, Gerhard ("Harmony of Gospels") says: "We 
see in this passage that this purpose is assigned miracles, 
viz., of being aids and supports of faith, by exciting and 
preparing the minds of men to believe God's Word and 
promises, which are worthy of belief even without mir- 
acles, or, as the Apostle says (1 Tim. 1: 15), 'worthy of 
all acceptation.' Miracles, however, only confirm, they do 
not impart faith. They who believe not from the Word, 
but from miracles, in the time of temptation do not re- 
main steadfast."* 

23. What is meant by the promise {John 14: 12) that 
greater miracles will be wrought by those zvho follow 
Him as preachers of the Gospel? 

The reference is to inner spiritual miracles in the con- 
version of men. The number brought to the knowledge 
of salvation by the immediate exercise of His office was 
very small when compared with the thousands whom He 
converted mediately at Pentecost through the sermon of 
Peter. The changed lives of converts to Christianity is 
an ever repeated miracle. So also is the spread of Chris- 
tianity and its perpetuity through ages of incessant 
conflict. 



* My esteemed colleague, Prof. Dr. Spaeth, in a sermon to the students 
of our Seminary, 1905, on the Gospel Lesson for Epiphany, illustrated this 
in one very condensed sentence: "From the star to the Word; from the 
Word to Christ." 



Chap. XIV.] CHRIST AS PRIEST. \6j 



CHAPTER XIV. 

CHRIST AS PRIEST. 

1. What is the Priestly Office of Christ? 

That according to which, as our only Priest, He offered 
Himself as the all-sufficient and only sacrifice for our 
sins and intercedes with God, that we may be reconciled 
to Him and enjoy all the blessings of everlasting life. 

2. According to which nature is Christ our Priest? 

In all the functions of His Mediatorial Office, He al- 
ways acts according to both natures (see above, Chapter 
XI, 50-53). ''Christ is our righteousness, neither ac- 
cording to the divine nature alone, nor according to the 
human nature alone, but the entire Christ according to 
both natures, alone in His obedience, which, as God and 
man, He rendered the Father even to death" (Formula 
of Concord, 501). 

3. What Old Testament types were there of Christ's 
priesthood? 

Two : the Levitical priesthood, and that of ' Melchize- 
dek. The main argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews is 
to show the inferiority of the Levitical priesthood to that 
of Christ. The Levitical priests were of the tribe of Levi ; 
Christ was of Judah. The former were mere men ; the 
latter, was also God. The former were sinners, who had 
to make satisfaction for themselves ; the latter was holy 
and spotless, whose offering is entirely for us. The former 
differed from the victims they offered ; with the latter, 
priest and victim were one. The former were numerous, 
because each one could not fulfill all parts of his office ; 
the latter needed no assistant or substitute. The sacri- 
fices of the former were unable to expiate sin, and, there- 
fore, had to be frequently repeated ; that of the latter was 
offered once for all. 



1 68 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIV. 

The priesthood of Melchizedek is shown to surpass 
that of the Levitical order, and to be a better type of that 
of Christ for the following reasons : The name means 
"King of righteousness," and he was "King of Salem," 
i. e., of peace, both of which are united in Christ. His 
genealogy was not known, thus typifying the eternity of 
Christ's person. He united, like Christ, kingship and 
priesthood in the same person. As a superior, he blessed 
Abraham, the ancestor of Aaron and the Levitical priests. 
He broke through the line of the regular, external succes- 
sion, having neither predecessors nor followers in his 
office. 

4. What are the two functions of this priesthood? 
The sacrificial offering and the sacerdotal intercession; 

or satisfaction and intercession. 

5. Is the term "satisfaction' found in Holy Scripture? 
No. It is used to express the thought variously stated 

in different passages. 

Is. 53:4-6 — "He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows He 

was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the 

chastisement of our peace was upon him Jehovah hath laid on him the 

iniquities of us all." Matt. 20:28 — "To give his life a ransom for many." 
1 Tim. 2:6 — "Who gave himself a ransom for all." 1 John 2:2 — "He is 
the propitiation for our sins." 4:10 — "He sent his Son, to be the propitia- 
tion for our sins." Rom. 4:25 — "Whom God hath set forth to be a pro- 
pitiation through faith in his blood." 5:11 — "While we were enemies we 
were reconciled to God through the death of his Son." Eph. 1 :y — "In 
whom we have redemption through his blood." 2 Cor. 5:21 — "Him who 
knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the 
righteousness of God in him." Gal. 3:13 — "Christ hath redeemed us from 
the curse of the law, having become a curse for us." 1 Pet. 1:18, 19 — 
"Knowing that ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver 
or gold, from your vain manner of life, handed down from your fathers, 
but with precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, 
even the blood of Christ." 

These passages concur in teaching that penalties due 
men on account of their sins have been endured by Christ ; 
that, as a result, God is reconciled with those who had 
been beneath His wrath ; that, they are delivered from all 
liability to punishment, and instead thereof, receive the 
rewards of Christ's perfect obedience to the law. That is, 



Chap. XIV.] CHRIST AS PRIEST. 169 

Christ had met all the demands of the Law for man ; He 
has satisfied it. 

6. What other term is synonymous ? 

Redemption presents one side of satisfaction, viz., the 
payment of the price by which man is freed from the con- 
sequences of sin. The word is used in two senses. Some- 
times it means deliverance or liberation itself, as in Luke 
21 : 28; Rom. 8 : 23 ; Eph. 4: 30, but generally as in pas- 
sages above given "the payment of the price of redemp- 
tion." 

7. Whom did Christ satisfy ? 

2 Cor. 5 : 19, "God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto himself," shows that it was not only the Father, but 
the entire Trinity that was offended because of sin, and 
was reconciled ; as well as that it was not merely the Son, 
but the entire Trinity in and through the Son that made 
the offering for sin. 

8. In what relation did God receive satisfaction ? 
Not as a mere private creditor, ready at will to exact or 

relieve from an obligation, but as a most just judge main- 
taining the absolute inviolability of His law. 

9. But is not the rendering of satisfaction by one 
from whom it zvas not demanded a violation of law? 

In human courts the bondsman is accountable for the 
payment of a debt for which he is surety. "In this sense, 
it is said by theologians, that punishment must necessarily 
be inflicted impersonally for every sin, but not at once 
personally upon every sinner, since by peculiar grace God 
can exempt some from this penalty, when a bondsman is 
substituted in his place" (Turretin). 

10. Is it not an act of injustice to allow an innocent 
one to suffer for the guilt of another? 

Not when the innocent one, by his own free will, as- 
sumes the burden (Heb. 10:7), and retains the power, 
at will, to relinquish it. 



I^O A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIV. 

John 10:18 — "No one taketh my life away from me, but I lay it down of 
myself. 1 have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." 

Nor when he has the power to bear the penalties to 
the utmost, and, after exhausting them, to be both free 
himself and to bring deliverance to others. 

11. What attributes of God are especially prominent 
in this provision for a satisfaction for sin? 

His justice in vindicating the Law, and inexorably de- 
manding punishment even when His Son occupied the 
place of the sinner. His holiness in tolerating the sinner 
only upon the condition of the payment of his debt and 
the removal of his guilt. Above all His love in providing 
such a satisfaction for such enemies. 

Rom. 5:7, 8 — "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; for per- 
adventure for the good man, some would even dare to die. But God com- 
mendeth his own love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ 
died for us." 

12. For whom was this satisfaction rendered? 
For all men. This is proved by : 

(a) Express declarations that Christ's work was for all. 

2 Cor. 5:14, 15— "One died for all." "He died for all." Heb. 2:9— 
"That, by the grace of God, he should taste of death for every man." Rom. 
8:32 — "He delivered him up for us all." 

(b) Statements ascribing it to the world. 

John 1:29 — "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world." 3:16 — "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish." 1 John 2:2 — "He is 
the propitiation for the whole world." 

(c) Declarations that it included even those who ulti- 
mately perish. 

Rom. 14:15 — "Destroy not with thy meat him for whom Christ died." 
Heb. 10:29 — "Counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sacri- 
ficed an unholy thing." 1 Cor. 8:11. 

13. May not these passages be explained by the saying 
of Peter Lombard: C( Christ died sufficiently, but not effi- 
ciently for all"? 

This would not be consistent with the argument in the 
context of the passages above cited. Besides no lack of 
efficacy in the satisfaction can be proved from the fact 
that this efficacy is not appropriated by . all. We can 



Chap. XIV.] CHRIST AS PRIEST. I7I 

not ascribe a patient's serious illness to a lack of efficacy 
in the medicine when he fails to take it. 

14. For what sins was this satisfaction rendered? 
For all sins, and all their guilt and punishment. "That 

He might be a sacrifice not only for original guilt, but for 
all actual sins of men" (Augsburg Confession, Art. III). 

1 John 1:7 — "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all 
sin." 

Gal. 3:13 — "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having be- 
come a curse for us."* 

(See also Chapter XII, 34.) 

15. Has any other doctrine ever been widely taught? 
Yes, the prevalent view of the scholastics, which has 

pervaded the teaching and life of Roman Catholics, that 



*Thus, in our stead, Luther says in a famous passage, Christ is no longer 
"an innocent and sinless person, the Son of God born of the virgin, but a 
sinner, who has and bears the sin of Raul, the blasphemer and persecutor, 
and of Peter, the denier of his Master, and of David, the adulterer and 
murderer; in a word, He bears and has all the sins of all men in His body. 
Not that He has committed these sins, but that being committed by us, He 
assumed them and transferred them to His own body, in order to render 
satisfaction for them with His own blood. The general law of Moses, 
therefore, lays hold of Him, although innocent in His person, because it 
finds Him among sinners and robbers, just as a magistrate holds and pun- 
ishes as guilty one whom he finds among robbers even though he had never 
committed anything wrong or worthy of death. Christ, however, was not 
only found among sinners, but even of His own accord and by the will of 
the Father wished to be the associate of sinners by assuming the flesh and 
blood of those who, as sinners and robbers, were sunk into all sins. When 
the Law, therefore, found Him among robbers, it condemned and killed 
him as a robber. * * But some one may say: 'It is blasphemous to call the 
Son of God a sinner and a curse.' I answer: Tf you want to deny this, 
deny also that He suffered, was crucified arid died.' It is no less absurd to 
say that the Son of God was crucified, than that He was a sinner. But it 
it is not absurd to confess and believe that Christ was crucified between 
thieves, it is not absurd to say the other. Certainly there is something in 
the words of Paul: 'Christ became a curse for us.' 'He made Him to be 
sin for us, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
Him.' So John the Baptist calls Him the Lamb of God, bearing the sins 
of the world, John 1:29. He Himself is innocent, because the Lamb of 
God without spot or blemish, but since He bears the sins of the world, His 
innocency is weighed down by the sins and guilt of the whole world. What- 
ever sins I and you have done have become the sins of Christ, as though 
He Himself had committed them. lsa. 53:6 says: 'The Lord hath laid upon 
Him the iniquity of us all.' These words we ought not to extenuate, but to 
give them their proper force." On Gal. 3:13. 



172 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIV. 

the satisfaction of Christ availed for sins which men have 
committed before baptism, and that for those committed 
since then, it avails only so as to compensate for guilt, but 
not for punishment, except by commuting it, through the 
administration of the Power of the Keys, from that which 
is infinite and eternal, to that which the believing can off- 
set, partly in this world and partly in the world to come, 
in Purgatory, by their own satisfactions. It was on this 
point that the Protestant Reformation of the Sixteenth 
Century began. 

16. What is the consequence of the doctrine that the 
satisfaction of Christ is complete only with the respect to 
sins committed before baptism? 

Only one part of the work of redemption is ascribed to 
Christ, while another, which may readily be interpreted 
as the greater part, is left to men. According to this 
theory, what Christ has begun, man has to complete. 

17. What are the various punishments of sins, and 
hozv has Christ redeemed from each? 

The curse of the law (Gal. 3: 13). (See above, 14.) 
The dominion of Satan. 

Heb. 2:14 — "Since the children are sharers in flesh and blood, he also 
himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death he might 
bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." 

The wrath of God. 

1 Thess. 1:10 — "Jesus who delivereth us from the wrath to come." 

Death. 

Heb. 2:14 — (See above). 

1 Cor. 15:55 — "O death, where is thy victory? O death where is thy 
sting?" 

Eternal condemnation. 

Rom. 8:1 — "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are 
in Christ Jesus." 

18. By zvhat means was the satisfaction of Christ 
rendered? 

Bv His obedience to the law. 

Rom. 5:19— "For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were 
made sinners, so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made 
righteous." 



Chap. XIV.] CHRIST AS PRIEST. I73 

19. Hozv has this been confessionally stated ? 

"His obedience, not only in suffering and dying, but 
also that he in our stead was voluntarily subject to the 
Law, and fulfilled it by His obedience, is imputed to us 
for righteousness, so that, on account of this complete 
obedience, which, by deed and by suffering, in life and in 
death, He rendered His heavenly Father for us, God 
forgives our sins, regards us godly and righteous, and 
eternally saves us" (Formula of Concord, 572). 

20. What two factors are comprised in this obedience? 
It has been divided into the Active and the Passive 

Obedience. 

21. What is the Active Obedience? 

Christ's perfect compliance with all the requirements 
of the Law, Moral, Ceremonial and Forensic, prescribed 
as the condition of eternal life and its rewards. 

Matt. 5:17 — "I came not to destroy, but to fulfil." Gal. 4:4, 5 — "Born 
under the law, that he might redeem them that were under the law." Rom. 
10:4 — "Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that 
believeth." 

This can be illustrated by a careful study of the history 
of His life in the Gospels, in which He will be seen to 
have done fully all that the law demanded, and to have 
abstained entirely from all that it prohibited. 

22. What is the result of such complete conformity 
to the law? 

The acquiring of the merit and rewards promised obe- 
dience. 

Matt. 3:15 — "It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." Rom. 10:4 — 
"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." 1 Cor. 1 -.30 — "Christ 
Jesus who was made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness." 

23. Was this subjection to the Law rendered in order 
that He might Himself win the rewards? 

No. For personally He not only was Lord of the Law, 
but already possessed all things. Personally He could 
not acquire righteousness for Himself ; as He already had 



174 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIV. 

it. All the merit and reward belongs, therefore, to those, 
for whom He was vicariously under the law. 

Phil. 3:9 — "And he found in him, not having a righteousness of mine 
own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in 
Christ." Rom. 1:17 — "For therein is revealed a righteousness of God, from 
faith unto faith." 

24. What is the Passiz'e Obedience? 

The bearing of the guilt and the payment of the pen- 
alties due the violated law because of men's sin. For 
proofs, see above under 12, 14, 17, and 1 Peter 1 : 18, 19; 
2:24; Heb. 9:28; Is. 53; 2 Cor. 5:21. 

25. Can the Active and Passive Obedience be sep- 
arated? 

Only in thought. They are the positive and negative 
sides of the same thing. Man could have no righteous- 
ness with the guilt of sin reckoned to him and its penalties 
impending. By His passive obedience Christ transfers 
all the penalties to Himself and endures them ; by His 
active obedience, a righteousness is provided in which the 
guilt of sin disappears as night flees before the rising of 
the sun, or man's shame and nakedness are covered by a 
spotless robe. 

26. Does righteousness, hozvever, consist in deeds and 
sufferings? 

As righteous deeds and sufferings are the revelation 
and proofs of an inner righteousness which has preceded, 
so the Active and Passive Obediences testify to what the 
Son of God, in His incarnate person, is for those for 
whom He lived and labored and toiled and cared. What 
Christ did and suffered is the revelation of what Christ 
was, and is, and forever will be. 

Rom. 5:8 — "God commendeth his own love towards us, that, while we 
were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 

John 15:13 — "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends." 

As the life and death of Christ were the revelation of 
God's gracious will towards man, the resurrection and 



Chap. XIV.] CHRIST AS PRIEST. 175 

ascension were the pledges of the power at the service of 
this love (Phil. 3:9), and the unassailable character of 
the righteousness provided through His satisfaction. His 
satisfaction, however, culminates, centers, is concentrated 
in his self-surrender to all our conditions and sufferings. 

2.7. How then did Christ's sacrifice differ from that of 
the Old Testament sacrifices ? 

They were not true and real, but only figurative sacri- 
fices ; as the essence of the sacrifice lies in the cheerful 
self-surrender of the victim. Paul has laid down the 
principle underlying reward when he says (1 Cor. 9: 17), 
"If I do this of mine own will" (or "willingly," A. V.), 
"I have a reward." The sacrifice of Christ, therefore, 
was the entire state or condition of obedience, to the law, 
in which He voluntarily surrendered Himself for man's 
sin, and for the purchase of life and salvation. 

28. When was the satisfaction rendered? 

It comprised the entire State of Humiliation, in all its 
acts and sufferings. For all were part or expressions of 
His meritorious obedience. 

29. Does the resurrection belong to His satisfaction? 

It was not part of the satisfaction, because the law im- 
posed no obligation upon man to rise from the dead, as 
both godly and wicked will do, at Christ's call, at the last 
day. But it is the most powerful proof that Christ com- 
pleted the work which he undertook, and that full satis- 
faction has been afforded. Beyond this, it declares that 
all the power through which Christ rose from the dead is 
at the service of those to whom this satisfaction is applied. 

30. What is the second function of the Priesthood of 
Christ? 

The Intercession, or that by which, as High Priest, He 
prays to God for those whom He has redeemed. 

31. How is this Intercession to be distinguished as to 
its stages and its objects? 



176 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIV. 

(a) As to stages, into Preparatory and Glorious. The 
former occurred during the State of Humiliation, viz., in 
His Sacerdotal Prayer (John 17), in His prayer for 
Peter (Luke 22:32), for His murderers (Luke 23:34), 
and the promise of the Comforter (John 14:16). The 
latter occurs in the State of Exaltation. 

Rom. 8:34 — "Who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh inter- 
cession for us." Heb. 4:14-16 — "Having then a great high priest, who hath 
passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our 
confession. For we have not an priest that cannot be touched with the 
feeling of our infirmities; but one that hath been in all points tempted like 
as we are, yet without sin. Let us, therefore, draw near with boldness to 
the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help us 
in time of need." 7:25 — "Wherefore he is able to save unto the utter- 
most them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to 
make intercession for them." 9:24 — "For Christ entered into heaven itself, 
now to appear before the face of God for us." 1 John 2:2 — "If any man 
sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." 

(b) As to objects, it is distinguished into General and 
Special. The General is for all men, even while they 
care nothing for His grace, as He prayed for his cruci- 
fiers (Luke 23:34). The Special is for believers. In 
this sense, He says (John 17:9), "I pray not for the 
world, but for those whom thou hast given me." 

32. But does He pray for the two classes of objects 
in the same way? 

For the former, He prays that they may be brought to 
repentance and faith (Luke 13:8; 23:34). For the 
latter, that they may be kept firm in faith (John 17: 11) 
and in union with one another (John 17:21), be sancti- 
fied (John 17:17), and enjoy His eternal glory (John 
17:24) The Intercessory Prayer of John 17 was doubt- 
less spoken by Jesus in the hearing of His disciples, in 
order that the general subjects of His intercession for 
His people might be known to the Church on earth. 

33. What is the ground of His intercession? 

Not simply His personal relation with the Father, but 
that which He bears because of the completion of His 



Chap. XIV.] CHRIST AS PRIEST. IJJ 

mediatorial work. The intercession presupposes the sat- 
isfaction or propitiation and its merits. 

John 17:4— "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." 

See especially Heb. 5:25-27, where the ground of the intercession is stated 

as the offering which he made "once for all, when he offered up himself." 

Also 1 John 2:2, where the fact that "he is the propitiation for our sins" 

is the ground for his being "Advocate with the Father," v. 1. Cf. Heb. 5:12. 

34. What is the mode? 

Real, not figurative. It is more, therefore, than the 
efficacy of the satisfaction as this continues to be opera- 
tive. But as to how the Ascended Son addresses the 
Father, we need not inquire. It is another mystery, like 
that referred to above (Chapter XII, 43). This much 
only can we affirm, viz., that it is in a manner corres- 
ponding to the Right Hand of God, and not, as in Heb. 
5 : 7, "in the form of a servant," which has been laid 
aside (Phil. 2 : 7-10). 

35. Hozv long does the Intercession continue? 
Throughout eternitv. 

Heb. 7:25 — "He ever liveth to make intercession for them." In Heb. 
9:24-27, Christ is referred to as continuing in the holy place where he has 
once entered, unlike other priests who entered thither once every year. In 
Heb. 5:6; 7:17, he is called "a priest forever," in Heb. 3:3, "a priest con- 
tinually," and in 7:24, as having "an unchangeable priesthood." 

36. But hozv can this Intercession profit those zvho 
are beyond the possibility of a fall, and partake of com- 
pleted salz'ation? 

All their security and bliss in the world to come are 
inseparable from their relation to Christ. It is His eter- 
nal intercession that sustains them. 

37. But is not this explanation contrary to John 
16: 26, 2j? 

The passage referred to is : 

"I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father 
himself loveth you." 

It does not mean that Christ will ever cease to pray for 
His people, but that He will no longer pray for them 
alone, for they also, because of their access to the Father, 



I78 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIV. 

who is now reconciled and loves them through Christ, 
will pray with Him. The intercession is not removed by 
the love of the Father, but the true mode of prayer in the 
name of Christ is here taught the disciples. 

38. What explanation can be given of ihe various 
Moral Theories of the Atonement, i. e., those which find 
the efficacy of Christ's work solely in the appeal which 
they make to us? 

They spring from a very superficial view of the guilt 
of sin and all that this implies. 

The more sin is minimized the less need is felt of any 
satisfaction. The result at last is that, with the native 
goodness of human nature exalted, nothing is left for 
which a satisfaction is deemed necessary, and the entire 
life of Christ on earth, ending with His heroic death is 
made simply an incentive to evoke virtue in men, and 
especially to enkindle love to God and all that is godlike. 
Such theories perish, as straw at the touch of the flame, 
before such arraignments of this much vaunted human 
nature, as are found in Holy Scripture, particularly in the 
opening chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. "It will 
not be possible to recognize the benefits of Christ, unless 
we understand our evils" (Apology, 83). Hence the 
Law must be first taught in all its rigor and depth, before 
the Gospel can be properly applied. 

39. But are such theories entirely without foundation? 
They are, as a rule, partial and one-sided statements of 

truth. While there is no appeal made to the consciences 
of men so forcible and impressive as that which comes 
from the holy life and the self-sacrificing love of Christ, 
it is doing violence to scripture to regard these the only 
ends of Christ's mission, and, on this basis to pass by all 
the declarations concerning the need of a ransom, and 
His vicarious satisfaction. 

40. But why, then, is reconciliation said to be, as in 



Chap. XV.] CHRIST AS KING. 1 79 

2 Cor. 5: 18-20, a reconciliation of men to God instead of 
God to men? 

The passage referred to is not a full treatment of the 
entire doctrine of the provisions of divine grace, but only 
a practical exhortation to men to appropriate and use that 
reconciliation which in verses 14, 15, God has provided 
for men in Christ. The doctrine clearly taught in many 
Scripture passages underlies this statement also, that 
God's love for sinful man always precedes man's feeblest 
desire for a return to God. Man is potentially justified in 
the satisfaction made through Christ, but this poten- 
tiality is actualized only when by faith he makes it his. 
God, in other words, has done everything on his part 
that reconciliation be effected ; it is for man to avail him- 
self of such reconciliation, upon the terms under which it 
is now offered. 



CHAPTER XV. 

CHRIST AS KING. 

1. In what relation is the Kingship of Christ con- 
sidered here? 

Not with reference to his rule in His divine nature, 
from all eternity ("the essential Kingship"') but as a part 
of the .Mediatorial Office ("the personal Kingship") ex- 
ercised according to both natures (Chapter XI, 50), and 
beginning, therefore, with His conception. 

2. Define it? 

It is His dominion over all things for the application 
of Redemption. 

3. What stages belong to this Kingship? 

In the State of Humiliation, Christ ordinarily refrained 
not only from the assertion of His claims as King, but 
also according to His human nature, from the use of its 
prerogatives. Likp Ulysses in Ithaca, "he came unto his 



l8o A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XV. 

own, and they that were his own received him not" (John 
I : n). He had not where to lay His head (Matt. 8 : 20) 
His majesty was not displayed, because His kingdom was 
not of this world (John 19:36) and did not come "with 
observation" (Matt. 17:20). It was only through his 
passion and death that He entered into glory (Luke 
24: 26), and into the exercise of all power in heaven and 
earth (Matt. 28:18). Nor was there any resort to 
earthly pomp and glory in the collection and govern- 
ment of His Church ; this was accomplished solely by 
His call to enjoy spiritual blessings, the forgiveness of 
sins, sonship with God, peace of conscience, etc. Even 
after he had asserted His majesty by rising from the 
dead, and was about to ascend to heaven, he recalled His 
disciples from their thought concerning any kingdom 
characterized by earthly dignities (Acts 1 : 6, 8, 9), to the 
duties of humble and painful service, just as he had pre- 
viously warned the mother of James and John (Matt. 
20: 23). But the final goal of the kingdom both for the 
King and His obedient subjects, is a most prominent sub- 
ject of revelation, prophecy and promise. 

4. Within zvhat spheres is this Kingship exercised f 

The Kingdom of Power, the Kingdom of Grace and 
the Kingdom of Glory. The distinction corresponds to 
the diverse modes in which Christ regards His subjects 
and governs them. 

5. What is the Kingdom of Power ? 

That by which Christ, according to both natures, rules 
and disposes all things in heaven and earth, for the collec- 
tion, preservation and salvation of His people. 

Heb. 2:8 — "Thou hast put all things under his feet." 

Phil. 2:10 — "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things 
in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth." Eph. 1:21, 22. 

6. How zvas this Kingship occasionally asserted even 
during His State of Humiliation f 



Chap. XV.] CHRIST AS KING. 181 

By His miracles, in which He showed that He was 
master of the powers of Nature, and of demons. 

Matt. 8:27 — "What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the 
sea obey him?" 

Matt. 14:26 — "And the disciples saw him walking on the sea." 

Matt. 8:16 — "He cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that 
were sick." 

Luke 7:14, 15 — "And he said, Young man, I say unto thee arise; and he 
that was dead sat up and began to speak." 

7. Where does it culminate? 

In the State of Exaltation. (See above, Chapter XII, 
67 sqq.). Here belongs the application to Christ also in 
His human nature, of all that belongs to Him in His 
divine, in the treatment of Providence (see above, Chap- 
ter V). 

8. If the Kingdom of Power is Christ's dominion over 
all things, how can there be also a Kingdom of Grace and 
a Kingdom of Glory f 

In one sense, the Kingdom of Power comprehends the 
Kingdoms of Grace and of Glory. But in use, it is re- 
stricted to that sphere in which Christ displays nothing 
but power. 

9. What then is the Kingdom of Grace f 

It is that through which He bestows spiritual blessings 
in this life ; or that "in which, through the Word and 
Sacraments, He collects and preserves the Church Mili- 
tant and abundantly furnishes it with spiritual blessings." 
The full treatment of this subject belongs to the chapters 
concerning the Applying Grace of the Holy Spirit, or 
Soteriology that are immediately to follow. 

10. Who are the subjects? 

All believers of all nations and peoples, all ranks and 
classes. 

Matt. 28:18-20. 

Gal. 3:28 — "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither 
bond nor free, there can be no male and female: for ye are all one man 
in Christ Jesus." 



1 82 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XV. 

ii. What is its peculiar sphere? 
The inner life. 

Matt. 17:20, 21 — "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; 
neither shall they say, Lo here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is 
within you." 

Rom. 14:17 — "The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but right- 
eousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." 

12. What are its characteristics? 

(a) In the world, but not of the world (John 17: 9-1 1) 

(b) Here (as in passages under 11), and yet in the 
future, as in the petition of the Lord's Prayer; the refer- 
ence being to successive stages, in its diffusion among 
men, in its crises and periods of development, and in the 
appropriation of its blessings by individuals. 

13. Hozv is it ruled? 

By the Holy Spirit exerting His efficacy through Word 
and Sacraments, and thereby impressing His law upon 
men's hearts (Heb. 8: 10). 

14. To what privilege are its subjects admitted? 
They share in the rule. 

1 Pet. 2:9— "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a 
people for God's own possession." 

1 Cor. 3:21 — "For all things are yours." 

15. What is the Kingdom of Glory? 

The rule of the exalted Saviour over the Triumphant 
Church, i. e., saints and angels in Heaven. 

1 John 17:24 — "I desire that they also whom thou hast given me, be 
with me where I am, that they may behold my glory." 

1 Pet. 2:22 — "Who is on the right hand of God, having gone into heaven; 
angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him." 

Heb. 12:22, 23; Matt. 25:34; Luke 22:29, 30. 

16. What different stages of this kingdom are there? 
It began with the Ascension, but will not reach its 

consummation until the Final Judgment. 

17. Is it eternal? 

Rev. 11:15 — "The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our 
Lord and his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever." 

18. But is not this inconsistent with i Cor. 15: 24-28? 

"Then cometh the end when he shall deliver the kingdom to God, even 
the Father," etc. 



Chap. XVI.] mission of the holy ghost. 183 

"Kingdom" may refer here materially to all who con- 
stitute the kingdom, i. e., the Church or mystical body of 
Christ ; and the passage would then mean that Christ will 
present to the Father all His people whose salvation is 
now perfected. Or, as it is more frequently explained by 
our theologians, the reference is only to the mode of 
administration, as the Kingdom of Grace, with its means, 
Word and Sacraments, passes entirely into the Kingdom 
of Glory, where we shall see and know Him without 
means. There is no deposition or abdication, but only 
the presentation of all that has been accomplished to God. 
Verse 28, referring to the subjection of the Son to the 
Father must be understood of the divine person of the 
Son according to the human nature. The whole history 
of redemption, from its beginning to its consummation 
will then be understood, and the mystery explained of the 
Son's voluntary subjection for its accomplishment, and 
of all that was effected by this subjection. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE MISSION OF THE HOLY GHOST. 

i. What is the second item in the Plan of Redemption? 

As stated above (Chapter IX, 20), the first item was 
the incarnation and mediatorial work of the Son of God. 
This has been considered. The second item, to which 
we now come is the special mission of the Holy Ghost to 
apply the fruits of this mediatorial office. 

2. Repeat a few passages of Scripture in which this 
is taught. 

John 7:39 — "The Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not 
yet glorified." 14:16 — "I will pray the Father and he shall give you 
another Comforter, that he may be with you forever, even the Spirit of 
truth." 16:7 — "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come; but if I 
go, I will send him unto you," etc. Acts 1 :8 — "Ye shall receive power, 
when the Holy Spirit is come upon you." 



184 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVI. 

3. How are these passages to be explained? 

Not as though the Holy Ghost had not always been 
omnipresent. But just as God has different modes of 
presence and the Son of God, notwithstanding His omni- 
presence came into the world in a peculiar way when He 
became incarnate, so the coming of the Holy Ghost refers 
to a higher stage of His gracious efficacy. 

4. But zvas He not present with the godly of the Old 
Testament, and was He not active also daring the min- 
istry of Jesus? 

Undoubtedly. The Psalmist (Ps. 51:11) prays that 
the Holy Spirit be not taken from him. In 2 Sam. 23 : 2, 
David declares that the Spirit spoke through him, as also 
2 Peter 1 : 21 teaches when it says that "holy men of God 
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." So the 
Spirit descended upon Christ at His baptism (John 
1 : 32), and Christ had preached to Nicodemus the neces- 
sity of the new birth of the Spirit (John 3:5). But the 
reference here is to the presence of the Spirit with His 
gifts in highest measure. Before Pentecost, His gracious 
presence had been sporadic and occasional ; then He 
came to abide with believers forever (John 14: 16), and 
to enter into a closer and more inner relation with them 
(Heb. 8: 10), through a clearer, wider and more forcible 
presentation of the Gospel. 

5. Upon what did this mission depend? 

Upon the ascension of Christ to the Right Hand of 
God. 

Acts 2:33 — "Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted and having 
received of the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth 
this." 

6. Does not this refer, however, to the miracle of 
Pentecost? 

The miraculous signs of His coming and presence at 
Pentecost were one thing ; the coming and presence them- 



Chap. XVI.] mission of the holy ghost. 185 

selves were another. The peculiar presence in which He 
came was permanent and never withdrawn. 

John 14:16 — "That he may be with you forever." 

7. How was this stated in the Reformation period? 

" 'Not yet given means not that He did not then exert 
in His nature, or in heaven, but that He was not present 
then in His revelation or His works. For it is the pecu- 
liar office and work of the Holy Ghost to reveal and glo- 
rify Christ, and to testify concerning Him. But this 
office was still in the future, viz., the preaching of forgive- 
ness of sins, and how we are redeemed from death, and 
have comfort and joy in Christ. All this that now belongs 
to us was unheard of at that time. That salvation, right- 
eousness, joy and life are ours through Christ, no one 
knew. ... It was the old preaching, viz., that of the 
Law, that was heard, concerning which we have often 
declared that the preaching of Law and Gospel must be 
distinguished. For if the Law is preached it causes sin ; 
it is sorry and dry preaching, and makes hearts and con- 
sciences hungry, terrified, troubled, and athirst so that 
they sigh for God's grace. Such preaching continues 
until Christ rises from the dead and is glorified" (Luther, 
on John 7:39). 

"He speaks comparatively, just as when the New is op- 
posed to the Old Testament. God promises His Spirit to 
the believing, as though this had never been given the 
fathers. Undoubtedly the disciples had received already 
the first-fruits of the Spirit. Whence their faith save 
from the Spirit? Therefore, the Evangelist does not 
absolutely deny that the grace of the Spirit had been 
offered before Christ's death, but that it was not so clear 
and conspicuous as it would be afterward. For it is the 
chief adornment of Christ's Kingdom, that, by His Spirit, 
He governs the Church. But when He ascended to the 
Right Hand of the Father, He assumed the righteous 



l86 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

and as it were formal possession of His kingdom. It is 
no wonder, then, that He deferred the full offer of the 
Spirit, until this time. Nevertheless one question remains 
to be considered, viz., as to whether He means here the| 
visible graces of the Spirit, or regeneration, the fruit 
of adoption. My answer is : In these visible gifts, as in 
a mirror, the Spirit appeared, who had been promised by 
the coming of Christ ; nevertheless the proper subject here 
treated is the virtue of the Spirit, whereby we are regen- 
erated and made new creatures in Christ" (Calvin, on 
same passage). 

8. What is the Confessional declaration on this sub- 
ject? 

"Afterward He ascended into heaven, that He might 
sit at the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and 
have dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that 
believe in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their 
hearts, to rule, comfort and quicken them, and to defend 
them against the devil and the power of sin" (Augsburg 
Confession, Art. III). 



CHAPTER XVII; 

FAITH IN' CHRIST. 

1. Hozu are the fruits of the Mediatorial Office ap- 
plied by the Holy Ghost ? 

Through faith in Christ. 

Eph. 2:8 — "For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not 
of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Rom. 3:25 — "Whom God set forth to 
be a propitiation through faith in his blood." 

2. How has the doctrine of Holy Scripture on this 
subject been summarised in the Augsburg Confession? 

"Men cannot be justified before God by their own 
strength, merits or works, but are freely justified for 
Christ's sake through faith, when they believe that they 
are received into favor and that their sins are forgiven 



Chap. XVII. ] FAITH IN CHRIST. 1 87 

for Christ's sake, who, by His death hath made satisfac- 
tion for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteous- 
ness in His sight (Rom. 3 and 4)." (Article IV.) 

3. What distinctions have been made by theologians 
with respect to faith? 

They distinguish between (a) Subjective and Objec- 
tive; (b) Human and Divine; (c) Direct and Discursive; 
(d) Faith as an act, and faith as a habit ; (e) Explicit and 
Implicit; (f) Crude faith (tides informis) and Faith en- 
ergized by love (tides formata caritate). 

4. How do they distinguish betzveen Subjective and 
Objective Faith? 

The former is believing ; the second is what is believed. 
The former is faith in the proper sense of the term, and is 
its usual meaning in Scripture ; the second is faith by 
metonomy, according to which an object is named for 
its contents. As it is said that Jerusalem went out to hear 
John the Baptist (Matt. 3:5), when the meaning is that 
its inhabitants went out, so "faith" in a very few passages 
of Scripture, but very frequently in the usage of the 
Church stands for what is believed. 

Jude 3 — "Contend earnestly for the faith." Gal. 1:23 — "Preacheth the 
faith." 

5. What is Human Faith? 

It may be mere opinion. Hence in popular usage "be- 
lieve" often means no more than "suppose" ; or "be of 
the opinion." "Are you sure of this?" we ask of one who 
has reported something to us ; and are apt to hear the 
answer, "Well, I believe it," meaning no more than, "I 
have sufficient evidence to warrant the opinion." Refer- 
ring to this in his Introduction to the Epistle to the Ro- 
mans, Luther says : 

"Faith is not man's opinion and dream, which some take 
to be faith. . . . When they hear the Gospel, they im- 
mediately devise from their own powers the imagination 



l88 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

in their hearts, to which they give expression in the 
words 'I believe.' This they regard the right faith. 
Nevertheless it is nothing but man's thought and imagin- 
ation." 

Or it may be Historical Faith, i. e., a persuasion of the 
truth of facts, outside of the range of one's experience, 
upon the ground of clear testimony. "Faith doth not 
signify merely the knowledge of the history" (Augsburg 
Confession, Art. XX). Such also is the mere intellectual 
apprehension of the dogmas of the Church, as when it 
amounts to no more than the recitation by rote of the 
Catechism, or the mastering of a system of Dogmatics. 

:< Very many other passages they corrupt in the schools, 
because they do not teach the righteousness of faith, and 
because they understand by faith merely a knowledge of 
history and dogmas, and do not understand by it that 
virtue which apprehends the promise of grace and of 
righteousness" (Apology, 158). 

6. What is Divine Faith? 

Let Luther answer : "Faith is a divine work in us, 
which transforms us, and begets us anew of God. It 
makes us entirely different men in heart, mind, sense and 
all powers, and brings with it the Holy Spirit. . . . Faith 
is a living, wide-awake confidence in God's grace, that 
is so certain that one who has it is ready to die a thousand 
times for it. . . . Pray God to work faith in thee ; other- 
wise thou shalt remain eternally without faith, though 
thou thinkest and doest whatever thou wilt or canst" (In- 
troduction to Romans). 

"Faith is that my whole heart takes to itself this treas- 
ure. It is not my doing, not my presenting or giving, 
not my work or preparation" (Apology, 91). 

"Faith is when my heart and the Holy Ghost in the 
heart says, The promise of God is true and certain" 
(Apology, 103). 



Chap. XVII.] FAITH IN CHRIST. 189 

7. What is the distinction between Direct and Dis- 
cursive Faith? 

This distinction does not respect faith itself, for what 
is called "direct" and what is called "discursive," are es- 
sentially the same ; but it has respect to difference of 
ability for examining self and recognizing faith when 
present. "Discursive faith'' is that which is a subject of 
reflection and analysis by a mature Christian, as distin- 
guished from the faith of a child who believes without 
thinking of the faith itself, but simply of the object which 
faith apprehends. Direct faith is occupied with the ob- 
ject of faith, viz., Christ, while discursive faith is occu- 
pied with the direct faith. 

8. What is the distinction between faith as a habit 
and faith as an act? 

The one is a state or a condition or fixed relation to- 
wards Christ ; the other is an act prompted by the state, 
and emerging from it. The confidence which we have 
in a fellowman, the love which a husband has for his 
wife, or a parent for his child, lies deeper than the con- 
scious acts which give it expression. The child of God 
has faith in Christ when asleep as well as when awake ; 
when his mind is concentrated on business, or on in- 
tricate mathematical calculations, just as truly as when 
reading the Holy Scriptures, receiving the Lord's Sup- 
per, in prayer, or driven to the divine promises for com- 
fort under the stress of some overwhelming affliction. 

9. What is the distinction between Explicit and Im- 
plicit Faith? 

Explicit Faith is where what is believed is known ; 
Implicit, where the acceptance of what is known carries 
with it the acceptance of particulars that are unknown. 
Thus the Old Testament saints believed many things im- 
plicitly, which we believe explicitly. The scholastics have 
abused this principle in teaching that one who accepts 



I90 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

the authority of the Church, accepts thereby all that the 
Church teaches or has taught or will teach. According 
to this a servant girl or hostler who cannot read, if he 
be in subjection to the Roman Catholic Church, holds im- 
plicitly to all the Decrees and. Canons of Trent, even 
though he have never seen or heard of them, or thought on 
most of the subjects they discuss. 

10. What is the distinction between "Crude Faith" 
and "Faith energized b\ Love"? 

This distinction Protestants repudiate ; but it is neces- 
sary to know it in order to understand the discussions 
of the Reformation. It is based upon the scholastic 
definition of "faith," as mere assent to what the Church 
teaches. As such faith manifestly could not justify, they 
found the justifying virtue of faith in the love by which 
it might be pervaded (Gal. 5:6). The Reformers held 
that men are justified, neither on account of their love 
nor their faith, but that when justified on account of 
Christ through faith, love inevitably followed. Love, 
therefore, instead of being the condition of the efficacy of 
faith, is the fruit of the justification received through 
faith. "Faith alone receives remission of sins, justifies 
and regenerates. Then love and other good works fol- 
low" (Apology, 139). 

11. When you say that the fruits of the Mediatorial 
Office are applied through faith, what do you mean? 

That faith is never the ground of salvation, but only 
the organ through which the salvation provided by God 
is applied. The Augsburg Confession very clearly draws 
this distinction when it says that "men are justified for 
Christ's sake through faith," "propter Christum per fid- 
em" not propter Udem per Christum. 

12. In what then does the value of faith lie? 
Entirely in its object, as the value of a ring is that of 

the gem which it contains, or that of a vessel is often no 



Chap. XVII. ] FAITH IN CHRIST. I9I 

more than that of the precious substance which it en- 
closes. 

13. What then is the proper object of the faith 
through which the Holy Ghost brings salvation? 

Before answering this, it would be well to consider the 
various objects with which faith may be occupied. 

14. State some of these objects. 

"In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, various and di- 
verse objects of faith are described, as the article of Cre- 
ation, the prediction of the coming flood, the hiding of 
Moses, the institution of the Passover, the passage of the 
Red Sea, the fall of the walls of Jericho, etc. In the Gos- 
pels, where faith is commended, very frequently its ob- 
jects are described, as the cure of diseases or certain bod- 
ily deliverances. The example of the faith of Abraham 
which Paul cites (Rom. 4:3), is seen by a reference to 
Gen. 17:5 to be the promise concerning the fruitfulness 
of his body and the external bodily seed. Now, we do not 
deny that there are various objects with respect to even 
earthly things, with which faith is occupied. But the ques- 
tion here is, What is the object, with respect to which 
faith justifies? Sometimes Scripture speaks of the ob- 
ject of faith in general ; at other times, it defines the ob- 
ject by the apprehension of which faith justifies. The 
question is different when we afterwards treat of the ex- 
ercises of faith, under the cross, in obedience, in prayer, 
and in expectation of bodily and spiritual things, after 
the person has been already reconciled by faith. There 
is a difference between faith apprehending Christ, who 
is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that 
believeth, and the exercises of faith which are directed 
towards other objects, nevertheless these exercises al- 
ways presuppose, as their foundation, that God has been 
reconciled by faith" (Chemnitz, Loci). 

15. Now we are ready to learn the proper object which 



192 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

faith apprehends, so as to obtain the fruits of Christ's 
Mediatorial Office? 

"When we speak of Justifying Faith, we must keep in 
mind that these three things concur : the promise, and 
that gratuitous, and the merits of Christ, as the price or 
propitiation" (Apology). In other words: "Promise, 
grace and Christ's merit." All are summarized in the 
words : "The grace of God promised because of the merits 
of Christ," or "The merits of Christ gratuitously offered 
in the promise of the Gospel." (See Augsburg Confes- 
sion, Art. IV, above, under 2.) Our faith rests entirely 
upon God's promise and that promise has been made be- 
cause of nothing within us that deserves it, but solely be- 
cause of Christ's merits. All these objects are combined 
in justifying faith. 

16. Cite a fezv of the many statements of our Confes- 
sions on this subject. 

'The Law requires of us our works and our perfec- 
tion. But the Gospel freely offers, for Christ's sake, to us 
who have been vanquished by sin and death, reconcilia- 
tion, which is received not bv works but bv faith alone. 
This faith brings to God not confidence in our own 
merits, but only confidence in the promise, or the mercy 
promised in Christ." "As often as we speak of faith we 
wish an object understood, viz., the promised mercy. For 
faith justifies and saves only because it receives the 
promised mercy." 'The Propitiator profits us, when by 
faith we apprehend the mercy promised in Him, and 
present it against the wrath and judgment of God" 
(Apology, 91, 92, 101). "Faith alone is the means or in- 
strument whereby we lay hold of Christ, and thus in 
Christ of that righteousness which avails before of God, 
for the sake of which this faith is imputed to us for right- 
eousness (Rom. 4:5)." "Faith justifies because in the 
promise of the Gospel, it lays hold of and accepts the 



Chap. XVII. ] FAITH IN CHRIST. I93 

merit of Christ; for if we are to be justified thereby, this 
must be applied and appropriated by faith" (Formula of 
Concord, 501, 572). 

17. What Scriptural proofs of this can be given? 

Rom. 3:22 — "The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ." 
v. 26 — "The justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus." Phil. 3:9 — "And 
"be found in him having the righteousness which is from God by faith." 
Acts 16:31 — Rom. 3:24 — "Being justified freely by his grace through the 
redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Rom. 4:16 — "It is of faith that it 
might be by grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed." 

The argument may also be stated thus : The Word of 
God is divided into Law and Gospel. But the Law can- 
not be an object of justifying faith (Gal. 3:22; Rom. 
3:21-27; 10:5, 6). There remains then only the Gos- 
pel, or the gratuitous promise of the forgiveness of sins 
and righteousness before God for Christ's sake. 

18. Is it not an arbitrary matter, however, to restrict 
the faith, which receives the forgiveness of sins to the 
one article concerning the merits of Christ gratuitously 
given, and to ignore other articles of faith? 

The other articles are not ignored or disparaged. Faith 
accepts every word of God that is offered it. It is an atti- 
tude of heart and mind that believes everything that it 
learns comes from God. But the question here is con- 
cerning the particular object which gives to faith all its 
justifying power. "As the sum, scope and goal of all 
Scripture is Christ, in His Mediatorial Office (Luke 
24:27-44; Rom. 10:4; John 5:39, 46; Heb. 10:7), so 
faith, in assenting to all the Word of God, regards the 
scope of all Scripture, and refers all other articles to the 
promised grace because of Christ as Mediator. In vain is 
faith occupied with other articles of Scripture, if it do not 
hold Christ, the Head (Col. 2: 19). To this effect, this 
item is added in the definition of faith. For the article 
of Redemption cannot be thoroughly understood, unless 
we be acquainted with the other parts of God's Word that 
precede; and yet we must firmly hold that faith justifies 



194 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

only with respect to the one object, viz., Christ" (Chem- 
nitz), and this one object in a particular relation, i. e., the 
promise of gratuitous reconciliation for the sake of Christ 
as Mediator. 

19. Are the acts of Justifying Faith, with respect to 
its object, of one kind? 

"Some are common and general ; others special. The 
general are directed towards the object considered in 
itself, without application to the believer; as when; with 
respect to the merit of Christ, one believes that Christ 
suffered, died, rose again ; or, with respect to the grace of 
God, that God, from pure grace and mercy, wishes to 
forgive sins. The special are such as are directed to their 
object with an application to the believer. Such act of 
faith, with respect to the merit of Christ, is when one be- 
lieves that Christ has suffered and died for him ; or, with 
respect to the grace of God,' that he will receive grace and 
forgiveness of sins." "The general are common to true 
believers and hypocrites, and necessary for justification; 
for no one can believe that Christ died for him, without 
believing that Christ died" (Bechmann). 

20. Analyze faith into its elements. 

While faith, properly speaking, is nothing but confi- 
dence, theologians generally enumerate three elements : 
Knowledge, Assent and Confidence. 

21. What of the first? 

An explicit acquaintance with the objects of faith is 
presupposed. The fact of redemption as taught in Holy 
Scripture must be known in order that there should be 
acts of faith. 

Rom. 10:14 — "How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard." 
Heb. 1 1 :6 — "He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is; 
a rewarder of them that seek after him." Luke 1:77; Eph. 1:17; Is. 53:11. 

22. What of the second? 

Assent is a judgment of the intellect by which what is 
taught in Holy Scripture concerning the Mediatorship of: 



Chap. XVII.] FAITH IN CHRIST. 195 

Christ and the grace of God is approved as true. By a 
general assent, the universal promises concerning the 
grace of God and merit of Christ are judged to be true. 
By a special assent, man is led by the workings of the 
Holy Spirit, to apply the general propositions concerning 
the Mediatorship of Christ and the grace of God to him- 
self, and thus to believe that Christ actually died for 
him (See above, under 20.) 

1 Tim. 1:15 — "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners" (General Assent) "of 
whom I am chief" (Special Assent). Gal. 2:20 — "Who loved me and gave 
himself for me" (Special Assent). Illustrate further from explanation of 
the Creed in our Catechism. 

23. What of the third? 

Confidence is an act or attitude of the will produced by 
the work of the Holy Ghost, whereby man relies upon the 
merits of Christ offered in the gratuitous promise of the 
Gospel, and commits himself with security to the provi- 
sions which God has therein made for his salvation. "Con- 
fidence involves the reliance of the entire heart and will 
upon the merit of Christ" (Koenig). 

24. What does this confidence imply ? 

A sincere and earnest desire for the mercy of God ac- 
quired by Christ's merits. The confidence of hypocrites is 
vain, because they do not really desire the grace of God 
and forgiveness. The promise is, "Blessed are they that 
hunger and thirst after righteousness ; for they shall be 
filled 1 ' (Matt. 5:6). 

25. What are some of the characteristics of confidence 
with respect to its object? 

(a) It has as its object a present good. The ungodly 
confide in their riches, which they esteem a present good ; 
the godly, in an Omnipresent and everlasting God. This 
good, our theologians have noted, while present sometimes 
really and physically, is at other times present only mor- 
ally, as by promise and efficacy, or is apprehended as 



I96 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

though present. Thus the godly in the Old Testament 
trusted in a Messiah that was to come. 

Heb. 11:13 — "Not having received the promises, but having seen and 
greeted them from afar." 

We trust in redemption, which two thousand years ago 
was purchased ; but its merit and efficacy extend to the 
present (Heb. 13 : 8). 

(b) This object is also a personal good, or one pertain- 
ing to the person who exercises the confidence. For this 
reason, it has been called "appropriative," since it takes 
the object to itself, as its own. Thus we take the merit 
of Christ and His offering for sin. 

(c) It is a good which is received in order to obtain 
some other good, and that, too, one which can be secured 
only with great difficulty. A general has confidence in his 
army, for his success in a campaign. A patient has con- 
fidence in a physician for bringing him possible relief 
from a disease. A student relies upon his scholarship, for 
enabling him to pass tests and gain standing. Thus men 
put their confidence in the mediation of Christ, as a means 
of obtaining from God grace, the forgiveness of sins and 
eternal life. 

All these elements are comprehended in the definition, 
"Confidence is an act whereby the will rests in Christ as 
Mediator, not only as a present good, but as our own, 
and the cause of another good, viz., the obtaining of re- 
mission of sins and life everlasting" (Baier). 

26. Hozv is confidence distinguished from Hope? 

Confidence refers to a present ; hope to a future good. 
Confidence relies on it as something that now is ; hope, as 
something that is to come. Confidence is directed to- 
wards a means ; hope towards the end itself. "Hope ex- 
pects future blessings and deliverance from trouble ; faith 
receives the present reconciliation and concludes in the 
heart that God has forgiven my sins, that He is now 
gracious to me" (Apology, 144). 



Chap. XVII.] FAITH IN CHRIST. I97 

27. Scriptural proofs that faith includes confidence? 

(a) The frequent use of the Greek preposition cis with 
the accusative after the verb pisteuein, which very liter- 
ally rendered into English is "to believe into," i. e., "to 
believe into him" or "believe into his name." 

John 3:16 — "Whosoever believeth into him." 
John 1:12 — "Them that believe into his name." 

Acts 10:43 — "Every one that believeth into him shall receive remission 
of sins." 

This cannot mean simple intellectual assent but an act 
of the will directed towards an object. Here an examina- 
tion of the force of the prepositions used with the verb 
pisteuein and noun pistis would be profitable. 

(b) From the names applied to faith. It is called 
Hypostasis (Heb. n : i), "assurance of things hoped for" 
(R. V., A. R. V.) ; "giving substance to things hoped for" 
(Marginal Reading, R. V., A. R. V.). See Thayer's 
Lexicon. 

Plerophoria. 

Rom. 4:21 — "Being fully assured that what he had promised." Col. 2:2 
— "The full assurance of the understanding." 

Pepoithesis. 

Rom. 8:38 — "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life," etc. 
2 Tim. 1:12 — "I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have 
committed unto him." 

Parrhesia. 

Heb. 4:16 — "Let us draw near with boldness." 

The word means literally "freedom of speech." Our 
Catechism paraphrases the passage, "That we call upon 
him with all cheerfulness and confidence, even as beloved 
children entreat their affectionate parent." 

To these Scriptural proofs, to which a number of others 
were added by the Reformers, we may add the every day 
usage of our language in which every one understands 
the expression, "I do not believe in such a man," or "in 
a particular school of medicine as Allopathy or Homoeo- 
pathy," as meaning, "I have no confidence in it." 



I98 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

28. Hozv have the three elements of faith been some- 
times distinguished? 

By an Augustinian formula, that "Credere Deum" 
"Credere Deo," and "Credere in Deum," are three dis- 
tinct things. The former means "to believe that there is a 
God"; the second, "to believe what God says"; the third, 
"to commit oneself to God, or have confidence in God." 
In all our dealing with fellow-men, we learn, first of all, 
to know, then to approve, and then to rely upon or entrust 
oneself to. The relations between bride and groom, pa- 
tient and physician, capitalist and confidential clerk, fur- 
nish illustrations from every day life as to how faith is 
at length attained. 

Sometimes, however, knowledge is regarded as presup- 
posed, but not as an element of faith. Then the definition 
becomes : "Faith is assent joined with confidence, or con- 
fidence joined with assent, and, consisting of these acts 
united, is called by the name now of the former, and again 
of the latter, the other always being connotated" (Baier). 

29. Are there degrees of faith ? 

Luke 17:5 — "Lord, increase our faith." 
Mark 9:24 — "I believe; help thou mine unbelief." 
2 Thess. t :3 — "Your faith groweth exceedingly." 

Our Lord rebukes his disciples as "of little faith," Matt. 6:30; 8:26 
and Matt. 15:28, commends the Syrophenician woman, as "of great faith." 

30. Is the efficacy of faith in proportion to its degree? 
Not with respect to justification, since all the efficacy 

of faith comes from the object which it apprehends, viz., 
the righteousness of Christ. The weakest faith and the 
strongest partake of all that Christ is, and thus equally 
justify. But when the question is concerning the comfort 
which faith receives and concerning its efficiency as an in- 
strument for advancing the Kingdom of God, the rule 
obtains : 

"According to your faith, be it done unto you," Matt. 9:29. 

31. Has faith, then, more than one office? 

It has two, one receptive or apprehensive, by which 



Chap. XVII.] FAITH IN CHRIST. 199 

man takes to himself the righteousness of Christ, and the 
other operative, by which the justified man is active in 
works of love. 

32. How does the Augsburg Confession treat of the 
operative office or energy of faith ? 

"Also they teach that this faith is bound to bring forth 
good fruits, and that it is necessary to do good works 
commanded by God, because of God's will, but not that 
we should rely on those works to merit justification before 
God" (Art. VI). "Because through faith the Holy Ghost 
is received, hearts are renewed and endowed with new 
affections, so as to be able to bring forth good works'' 
(Art. XX). 

33. What classical passage from Luther's Introduc- 
tion to the Epistle to the Romans should be kept in 
memory? 

"Oh, it is a living, active, busy thing that we have in 
faith. It is impossible for one who has faith to do other- 
wise than incessantly to do good. He asks not whether 
good works are to be done, but before the question can be 
asked, he has already done them, and is always busy . . . 
Faith is a living, w r ide-awake confidence in God's grace, 
that is so certain, that one who has it, is ready to die a 
thousand times for it. . . . It is as impossible, therefore, 
to separate works from faith, as it is to separate heat 
and light from fire." To this may be added a paraphrase 
of Luther by Tyndale ("Introduction to Romans"), 
"Where the Spirit is, there it is always summer, and there 
are always good fruits." "Faith keepeth not holiday, 
neither suffereth any man to be idle, wheresoever she is." 

34. What is the meaning of Gal y. 6, "In Christ Jesus, 
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor nncircum- 
cision but faith working through love"? 

The reference is not to faith as an object that is to 
justify, but to faith regarded as having justified. The 



200 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII 

thought is : Wherever there is faith, there is Justification, 
and wherever there is justification there is love, and 
wherever there is love, it inevitably expresses itself in 
works. Faith works through love, because through faith 
man being brought into right relations with God, the love 
of God is shed abroad in his heart, and sets in motion all 
his powers. 

35. Where do we learn concerning the means em- 
ployed by the Holy Ghost to work faith? 

Under Regeneration (Chapters XXI; XXIV, 1). 

36. Can faith be lost? 

(a) There are passages of Scripture that directly af- 
firm this : 

Gal. 5:4 — "Ye are severed from Christ, ye that would be justified by the 
law; ye are fallen away from grace." 1 Tim. 1:18 — "Some made ship- 
wreck concerning the faith." Rev. 2:5 — "Remember, therefore, whence 
thou hast fallen, and repent." Luke 8:13 — "These have no root who for 
a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away." 

(b) There are examples of those who fell : David, Solo- 
mon, Peter, Alexander, Hymenseus, Philetus, Demas, as 
well as of those who committed the sin against the Holy 
Ghost (see Chapter VIII, 57-60). 

(c) Numerous parables and figures are employed to en- 
force this truth. There are the allegories concerning the 
degenerate vineyard (Is. 5: 1-4), the fruitless tree (Matt. 
3:10), the dead branch of the vine (John 15:6), the 
broken shoots of the olive (Rom. 11: 17-21), the barren 
fig tree (Luke 13:6-9), the salt which has lost its savor 
(Matt. 5:13), the bad leaven (Matt. 16:6; f Cor. 
5:6, 7), adulterated silver (Is. 1 : 21 ; Ez. 22: 18), water 
that has become lukewarm (Rev. 3: 16) ; the parables of 
the house where the unclean spirit had been expelled 
(Luke 11 : 24) ; the lost sheep and lost coin (Luke 15) ; 
the figures of the race (1 Cor. 9: 24, 26; Gal. 5:7); the 
struggle between the flesh and spirit (Gal. 5: 16, 17). 

(d) There are most direct and explicit warnings. The 
entire section, I Cor. 9:27 — 10:12, is an argument in 



Chap. XVII. ] FAITH IN CHRIST. 201 

which the Apostle first states how deeply he realizes the 
possibility of his own fall, and ends, "Let him that think- 
eth he standeth, take heed lest he fall.'' So also Heb. 4:11. 

"Let us, therefore, give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall 
after the same example of disobedience." Cf. in O. T. Ex. 18:24. 

37. Can faith, if lost, be restored? 

That it is sometimes never restored is clear from Heb. 
6 : 4-6. This, however, does not occur irom God's will 
(Ez. 18: 32; 33 : 11 ; 2 Peter 3:9). (See above, Chapter 
VIII, 58.) That it is sometimes restored is clear from 
the cases of David and Peter, the constant admonitions 
given the fallen to repent, and the example of other re- 
turns commended by our Lord (Matt. 18:21, 22; cf. 
John 6: 37). The perpetual intercession of Christ (1 John 
2:1) is another proof. 

38. Can one know whether he have faith? 

There are circumstances when it may and frequently 
does happen that amidst severe temptations, true children 
of God doubt concerning the presence of a faith which 
they, nevertheless, truly have. If Christ on the cross felt 
that He was abandoned (Matt. 27:46), doubt and uncer- 
tainty can be expected in those within whom the rem- 
nants of sin remain, whose experience is that of Paul as 
described in Romans 7, and whose prayer must always 
be that of Mark 9: 24 (see above, 29). "Concerning the 
presence, operation and gifts of the Holy Ghost, we 
should not and cannot always judge from sense, i. e., as 
to how and when they are experienced in the heart, but 
because they are often covered and occur in great weak- 
ness, we should be certain from and according to the 
promise that preaching and hearing the Word of God is 
an office and work of the Holy Ghost, whereby he is cer- 
tainly efficacious" (Formula of Concord, 583). Cf. Chap- 
ter XXI, 37. 

39. Faith, then, must be more than mere probability? 
Faith in itself, that is, in its ideal and normal condition, 



202 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVII. 

is certainty. This is involved in what has been said 
above concerning confidence (see above, 25-27). 

40. Upon zvhat does this certainty depend? 

Not upon man's ability to read the secret will of God, 
or upon any new personal revelation, but upon what God 
has already revealed in the Gospel. 

Rom. 10:6-9 — "The righteousness which is of faith saith thus, Say not 
in thy heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down), 
or who shall descend into the abyss (that is, to bring Christ up from the 
dead). But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in 
thy heart: that is, the word of faith which we preach, that, if thou shalt 
confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thy heart, that God 
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." 

Rom. 4:16 — "It is of faith, that it may be according to grace; to the end, 
that the promise may be sure to all the seed." Heb. 6:18; i John 5:13. 

41. In what respect does the Gospel bring a certainty 
that cannot be found in the Law? 

"If eternal life could be apprehended by doubt, no 
promise would be more fitting than that of the Law ; for, 
on account of the condition of perfect obedience annexed 
to it, it leaves consciences in perpetual doubt. But as it is 
not doubt, but faith which justifies, God has offered the 
gratuitous promise of the Gospel, which relies not upon 
our works, but upon the mercy of God because of the 
obedience of His Son as Mediator" (Chemnitz). 

42. How do the Sacraments afford an argument for 
the certainty of faith? 

Because, as we shall see later, it is their office to offer 
and apply to the individual the gratuitous promise of the 
Gospel which is offered in general in the. read and 
preached Word. 

43. What examples of certainty of faith are recorded 
in Holy Scripture? 

Abraham (Rom. 4:18-21), David (Ps. 23:4; 27:1; 
31 : 5), Paul (Rom. 8: 37-39; 2 Tim. 2:7, 8). 

44. All this shows that one can and should have cer- 
tainty of faith, but how is this obtained? 

Rom. 8:17 — "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we 
are children of God." 



Chap. XVII. ] FAITH IN CHRIST. 203 

1 John 5:19 — "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in 
him." 

Gal. 4:6 — "Because ye are sons, God sent forth the spirit of his Son into 
our hearts, crying Abba Father." 

This is no new and peculiar revelation, but the answer 
of the Holy Spirit working within man's heart, through 
the Word and Sacraments, to the individual assurance of 
God's grace tendered through these means. 

45. Explain this more fully. 

The testimony of the Holy Spirit through the Word is : 
'That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but 
have everlasting life." "God will have all men to be 
saved." "Come unto me, all ye that labor.'' Through the 
Sacraments : "He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved." "Given and shed for thee for the remission of 
sins." The answer of man's heart, "Jesus is Lord," and 
still more so that of Thomas, "My Lord and my God," can 
come only from the Holy Ghost (i Cor. 12:3). When 
man from his heart exclaims, "Lord, I believe," or "I know 
whom I have believed," or "I am persuaded that nothing 
can separate me from the love of God," it is the confession 
of a testimony which the Holy Spirit has given within. 
There is thus, first, the external assurance of Word and 
Sacraments ; secondly, the presence and efficacy of the 
Spirit always attending them ; thirdly, the effect of this 
efficacy in the faith of the heart that is wrought ; fourthly, 
the consciousness of this faith resulting from the same 
working ; and fifthly, its expression or confession. 

46. By what term is this witness of the Spirit some- 
times designated ? 

Sealing. 

Eph. 1:13 — "In whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy 
Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance." i Cor. 1:22 — 
"God who also sealed us and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." 
Eph. 4:30 — "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were 
sealed unto the day of redemption." 

As a seal is affixed to an important document as a mark 



204 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVIL 

of authenticity, so the testimony of the Spirit is referred 
to as sure evidence of the certainty of faith. 

47. Can the presence of faith be decided by self-ex- 
amination? 

2 Cor. 13:5 — "Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove 
your own selves. Or know ye not as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ 
is in you, except ye be reprobates?" 

Such examination includes reflection on one's attitude 
towards sin and the law, on one's special assent and confi- 
dence in the Gospel, and on the question as to whether the 
fruits of faith be present. 

48. But what if such examination result in the revela- 
tion only of one's spiritual poverty, and faith itself be 
hidden? 

If there be hungering and thirst after righteousness 
and the desire for grace and faith, that of itself is faith, 
even though weak and struggling with doubt. 

1 John 3:20 — "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, 
and knoweth all things." 2 Tim. 2:13 — "If we are faithless, yet he abideth 
faithful; he cannot deny himself." 

The very longing for such righteousness is a proof of 
the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

49. Against what must we guard in every such self- 
examination, whether daily or before partaking of the 
Lord's Supper? 

Against putting the assurance of faith in place of 
faith itself and its contents. Man is not justified by faith 
in his faith, but by faith in the promise of God gratui- 
tously given through the merits of Christ as Mediator. 
Men must constantly be warned that justification comes 
not "on account of" or "because of" our faith, but solely 
"through faith on account of Christ." 

50. What was Luther's advice to Brenz when troubled 
by doubts concerning the assurance of faith? 

"I am accustomed, for the better understanding of this 
point, to conceive this idea, that there is no quality in my 



Chap. XVII.] FAITH IN CHRIST. 205 

heart at all, call it either faith or charity ; but instead of 
these I set Christ Himself, and I say, 'There is my right- 
eousness/ " 

The highest achievement of faith is to be so absorbed 
in looking to Christ as to forget itself. The children of 
Israel, who were bitten by serpents in the wilderness 
(Num. 21 : 6-9), were healed upon the condition of look- 
ing upon the brazen serpent. Their attention was occu- 
pied, not with an analysis of the act of looking, but with 
the object of their gaze itself. So, important as self-ex- 
amination is, Luther warns against its abuse, and seeks 
to turn morbid habits of introspection away from their 
ordinary channel to the righteousness outside of and 
above man in the merits of his Redeemer (Chapter 
XXI, 37). 

51. Is there salvation without faith? 

:< The answer is given in Mark 16:16; Heb. 11:6; 
John 3:6; 5: 18. If God then were to save one without 
faith, He would act contrary to His own word, and would 
deny Himself, which is impossible. For Paul writes 
(2 Tim. 2: 13), 'He cannot deny himself.' Just as im- 
possible, therefore, as it is for divine truth to lie, so im- 
possible is it for one to be saved without faith. This is 
entirely different, however, from the question as to 
whether in death or after death, God could give faith, and 
he could then be saved by faith. Who will doubt that He 
could so do? But that He actually so does, no one can 
prove" (Luther to von Rechenberg, De Wette's Luther's 
Briefe, II, 455). 



206 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVIII. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

JUSTIFICATION. 

1. In what senses is the word "justify" used in Holy 
Scripture ? 

Nowhere, in either the Old or New Testament, does it 
mean, in any passage or reference, the infusion of a new 
quality; but it has various other meanings, as in Ps. 51:4, 
the recognition and celebration of God's righteousness ; 
in James 2:21, the proof or declaration of the justification 
that had been received; in Ez. 16:51, the manifestation 
of relative righteousness when contrasted with the greater 
guilt of others sinning more grievously ; in Luke 10 : 29, 
the Pharisaic ambition for reputation for righteousness, 
etc. A well-established meaning is the forensic sense, viz., 
that by which a judge officially declares one to have a 
righteous claim, and therefore acquits a defendant of the 
charges brought against him. 

Deut. 25:1 — "If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto 
judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous 
and condemn the wicked." 

Prov. 17:15 — "He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the 
righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to Jehovah." 

Is. 5:23 — "Woe unto them that justify the wicked for a bribe." 2 Sam. 
15:41. 

2. In what sense is it used in the treatment of the jus- 
tification of man, the sinner, before God? 

In the forensic sense. For this, the proofs are : 

(a) The contrast made between "justify'' and "con- 
demn," showing that they are contradictories. 

Rom. 8:33, 34 — "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? 
It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth?" 1:16 — "The judg- 
ment came of one to condemnation; but the free gift came of many tres- 
passes unto justification." Matt. 12:37 — "For by thy words shalt thou be 
justified and by thy words shalt thou be condemned." 

(b) The use of synonymous forensic phrases. In 
Ps. 143:2 it is synonymous with "enter not into judg- 



Chap. XVIII. ] justification. 207 

ment" ; in John 3: 18, with "not judged"; in John 5:24, 
with "not come into judgment." 

(c) The entire argument of the third and fourth chap- 
ters of Romans. We need cite but one verse : 

Rom. 4:5 — "To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justi- 
fieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." 

(d) All the factors of a court of justice are given in 
passages referring to justification. 

The Judge. 

Rom. 8:33— "It is God that justifieth." 

A Defendant. 

Rom. 3:19 — "That every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may 
be brought under judgment of God." 

A Plaintiff or Accuser. 

John 5:45 — "There is one that accuseth you, even Moses." 

A Witness. 

Rom. 2:15 — "Their conscience bearing witness." 

An Indictment. 

Col. 2:14 — "The bond written in ordinances that was against us." 

A Sentence. 

Deut. 27:26 — "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things 
written in the book of the law to do them." 

A Code of Laws. 

Deut. 27:26 — "The book of the law." 

An Advocate. 

1 John 2:2 — "If any man sin we have an advocate with the Father." 

A Satisfaction. 

Rom. 8:19 — "Through the obedience of the one shall the many be made 
righteous." 

An Acquittal. 

Rom. 8:1 — "There is, therefore, no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus." Ps. 32:1. 

3. Justification being used, therefore, in a forensic 
sense, how is it defined ? • 

It is non-imputation or forgiveness of sins and the im- 
putation of the righteousness of Christ. They are actually 
two sides of one and the same act. For there can be no 
forgiveness of sins without righteousness ; and wherever 



208 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVIII. 

the righteousness of Christ is interposed there is for- 
giveness of sins. 

4. What Scriptural proofs are there for this? 

(a) The non-imputation of sins. 

Ps. 32:1, 2 — "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin 
is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom Jehovah imputeth not iniquity." 
2 Cor. 5:19 — "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not 
reckoning unto them their trespasses." 

(b) The imputation of Christ's righteousness. 

Rom. 5:19 — "For as through the one man's disobedience, the many were 
made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, shall the many be 
made righteous." 2 Cor. 5:21 — "That we might become the righteousness 
of God in him." Phil. 3:9 — "And he found in him, not having a right- 
eousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is 
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith." 

5. Of what sins is there a non-imputation? 

Since the satisfaction of Christ was made for all sins 
(Chapter XIV, 14), there is a non-imputation or for- 
giveness of all the sins of the justified. 

6. What righteousness of Christ is imputed? 

"We unanimously believe, teach and confess that Christ 
is our righteousness, neither according to the divine na- 
ture alone nor according to the human nature alone, but 
the entire Christ according to both natures, in Kis obedi- 
ence, which as God and man He rendered the Father even 
to death" (Formula of Concord, 501). The foundation 
for this is Rom. 5 : 19, above cited. It is not the right- 
eousness, therefore, which the unincarnate Son of God 
had from all eternity, or the righteousness of Christ at the 
Right Hand of God, mystically united with the believer, 
but the righteousness alone acquired by the subjection of 
the God-man to the law (Gal. 4:4, 5). 

7. What is the meaning of the word "impute" or 
"reckon"? 

This can be best learned by the study of the fourth 
chapter of Romans, in which it occurs eleven times, viz., 
in verses 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 22, 23, 24. It will be seen, 
from these passages that, in them, it very clearly means, 



Chap. XVIII. ] justification. 209 

"to put to the account of." This, when applied to sins, 
means "to charge against," but when applied to Christ's 
righteousness, "to credit with." 

8. Where is such distinction drawn ? 

Rom. 4:4, 5 — "Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as 
of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him 
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness." 

The act of imputation is the same in both cases ; but the 
distinction in its ground, results in two species of impu- 
tation : 

(a) Imputation of debt, when the effect of an action is 
accounted to the person acting, or, in other words, when 
the imputation is based upon something in the person to 
whom the effect or fruit of an action is reckoned. 

(b) Imputation of grace, when the effect is accounted 
as belonging not to the person acting, but to the one for 
whose advantages the work was undertaken. It is ex- 
pressly declared to be "of grace," i. e., gratis or "for 
nothing," not that it is without a foundation absolutely, 
but because it is without foundation in the person receiv- 
ing the benefit. When Paul declares (v. 5), that it is the 
ungodly who are justified "of grace," he shows that the 
personal foundation within them, is directly the contrary 
to the reward which they receive. If a friend were to do 
the work of another friend, in order that the wages might 
be given not to the laborer, but to the one in whose stead 
the labor was done, it would be imputation of grace, or 
vicarious imputation. 

9. Apply this to the article of Justification. 

"The imputation of righteousness consists in the grace 
and mercy of God, which, on account of a foundation 
inhering in Christ, covers sin, so that it is not imputed, 
and so that the foundation which does not inhere in the 
believer, is imputed to him out of grace, as though it in- 
hered in him with the perfection that is due" (Chemnitz). 



2IO A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVIII. 

io. But is there need of any foundation? Could not 
God have justified man without any ground whatever? 

"God has revealed His will in the Law and this cannot 
be broken. One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
away from the Law till all be fulfilled (Matt. 5:18). 
God, therefore, according to His revealed will, will not 
justify any one without righteousness, i. e., unless satis- 
faction be made, according to the law for sin, and perfect 
obedience be rendered. But in Rom. 3: 31, Paul declares 
that, when faith is imputed for righteousness, the Law 
is not destroyed, but established, i. e., righteousness is 
imputed not without a foundation. This, however, as has 
been shown, is not in believers ; but God has set forth 
His Son, as Mediator, made under the Law, which He 
has satisfied by bearing sins, and by His perfect obedi- 
ence (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 5:19; Rom. 
8:4)" (Chemnitz). 

11. What is meant by the expression, "Faith is im- 
puted" (Rom. 4: 5)? 

Faith receiving the righteousness of Christ, or the 
righteousness of Christ received by faith. All the value 
of faith lies in the object which it apprehends. (See 
Chapter XVII, 12, 15-19.) "Faith is not imputed: for 
righteousness, in so far as it is our act ; but only as it re- 
ceives the righteousness of Christ" (Koenig). "Faith 
justifies, not because it is so good a work and so fair a 
virtue, but because, in the promise of the Gospel, it lays 
hold of and accepts the merits of Christ" (Formula of 
Concord, 572). 

12. What is meant by the expression, "Faith justifies"? 

Not that faith of itself justifies; but that God justifies 
with respect to faith embracing the merits of Christ, or 
with respect to the merits of Christ which man by faith 
embraces.' 



Chap. XVIII. ] JUSTIFICATION. 211 

13. Has man then no part in his own justification ? 
None whatever. It is the work of God alone, the 

Father (Rom. 8:33, the Son (Matt. 9:6), the Holy 
Ghost (1 Cor. 6 : 11). 

14. Is it a work of God within man? 

Inseparable as it is from Regeneration, a work of God 
within man, Justification itself is entirely external. It is 
a work of God by which man is placed in right relations 
to the Law. 

15. Why cannot love justify or contribute towards 
justification ? 

Because it is not by love, but by faith, that man receives 
the promise of the Gospel and the merits of Christ. 
Neither can man have love towards God until he is justi- 
fied. "How can the human heart love God, while it 
'knows that He is terribly angry?" (Apology, 104). 

16. May zve not say that faith justifies because it is 
the root of good works ? 

This would be to change the ground of justification 
from the merits of Christ, to something within man. Man 
would be justified not through faith for Christ's sake, but 
only through Christ for the sake of the new life of obedi- 
ence that was to follow. While good works and a godly 
life are the inevitable fruit of faith, they are no condition 
of Justification, before, in or after regeneration. 

17. In what formulas has this doctrine been ex- 
pressed? 

In the so-called Exclusive Particles : "Without works," 
"without law," "freely," "not of works." 

18. What is their force? 

"These exclusive particles are all comprised in the ex- 
pression : 'By faith alone in Christ we are justified before 
God and saved.' For thereby works are excluded, not in 
the sense that a true faith can exist without contrition, or 
that good works must not follow faith as sure fruits . . . 



212 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVIII. 

but that they are excluded in the article of Justification 
before God. . . . Their true sense is : 

"(i) That all confidence in our works in the article of 
Justification be entirely excluded, so that our works be 
regarded neither entirely, nor in half, nor in the least part 
the cause or merit of Justification. (2) That this office 
abide with faith alone, that it alone and nothing else 
whatever is the means or instrument by and through 
which, God's grace and the merit of Christ are appropri- 
ated in the promise of the Gospel ; and that from this 
office, love and all the fruits of the Spirit are excluded. 
(3) That neither renewal, sanctification, virtues nor good 
works be constituted a form or part or cause of our Justi- 
fication" (Formula of Concord, 576). 

19. What then is the meaning of the formula: "We 
are justified by 'faith alone, without ivorks"? 

Not that faith can ever be alone, or ever be without 
good works, but that it is only the faith apprehending 
Christ that receives justification, and that the works in- 
separably belonging to faith, have nothing whatever to 
do with faith's appropriation of God's promise and 
Christ's merit. The words "without works" became 
necessary, when "by faith alone" was regarded as so 
ambiguous as to admit of the conception of faith as 
nothing more than potential good works. 

20. What four reasons did Melanchthon urge for 
keeping these "exclusives" always in view? 

( 1 ) The glory of Christ. By seeking some ground of 
Justification within self, men extenuate the wrath of God, 
minimize the significance of sin, and deprive Christ of 
some of the credit for their salvation. As Luther has 
somewhere said, they make of Christ only a patch on the 
garment of their own righteousness. (2) The comfort 
of distressed consciences. If man has to contribute the 
smallest part towards his own justification he will always 



Chap. XVIII.] justification. 213 

be in anxiety to know whether this part have actually 
been rendered with the perfection demanded by the Law, 
and will never be relieved of his doubts. There can never 
be assurance of faith. Hence the entire Roman Catholic 
system is "a theology of doubt," and repudiates the doc- 
trine of the certainty of faith.* (3) The offering of true 
prayer. For this is impossible until one actually knows 
that God is reconciled to him. (4) The difference be- 
tween the Law and the Gospel. It is the particle "gratis" 
that marks the distinction ("Loci," third edition, Corpus 
Reformatorum, XXI, 753-5). 

21. How is James 2: 21-24 to be understood? 

V. 24 — "Ye see that by works a man is justified, and not only by his faith." 

Our answer is : ( 1 ) We lay down the general principle 
that those passages of Scripture which treat of a subject 
professedly and in extended argument are to be taken as 
the norms whereby to judge mere incidental allusions in 
other passages. Applying this principle to the case before 
us, its result is that the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans 
and Galatians are to be taken as the true sedes doctrinae 
with respect to justification. If a conflict between Paul 
and James on this subject could be established, the for- 
mer's statement would have the preponderance. (2) But 
that such conflict cannot be proved we maintain upon the 
ground : That Paul treats of Justification before God, 
while James treats of the manner in which Justification 
may be recognized by men. Before men one is justified, 
i. e., declared to be righteous, by works as the inevitable 
fruits of faith. "Paul is treating of thosewho are to be 



*"Cum nullus scire valeat eertitudine fidei, cui non potest subesse falsum, 
se gratiam Dei esse consecutum." Decree of Trent "On Justification," Cap. 
IX. It is such doctrine that Luther criticises on Genesis XL1 : "1 ought 
to be certain concerning what 1 ought to think ot God, or rather concerning 
what God thinks ot me. It was a horrible error ot the Pontifical doctrine 
that it led men to doubt concerning the forgiveness of sins and grace. 
'Acknowledge,' they said, 'that thou art a sinner, and that, too, such a sin- 
ner, as not to be able to be sure of thy solvation.' Thus the whole world 
was sunk in doubt and erroneous opinions concerning God." ' ; ,• 



214 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XVIIL 

justified before God, in whose case faith alone, appropri- 
ating the grace of God and merit of Christ, can avail ; 
but James treats of men who have already been justified 
through faith, but who are to be recognized in this world 
by means of their good works" (Hutter). See Apology, 
pp. 126-128. 

22. Is Justification gradual ? 

No. It is not a process, but an act of God, and, as 
such, is instantaneous, perfect and uniform. Faith has 
degrees. Sanctification has degrees. But Justification is 
always the same, whether the faith be weak or strong. 
That which gives faith all its worth being the merit of 
Christ, this merit is just as effective where the faith is 
weak as where it is strong, at the very first moment when 
the least spark of faith appears, as when it has reached 
the highest grade attainable. 

23. May not some sins be forgiven, zvhile others re- 
main unf or given ? 

If the least sin be forgiven, all sins are forgiven ; if the 
.least sin remain unforgiven, not a single sin is actually 
forgiven. The entire righteousness of Christ is perfectly 
and completely ours, or we are without any righteousness, 
or shelter from God's wrath. The righteousness of Christ 
avails no more for the redeemed in heaven, than it 
does on earth for the humblect Christian, who with stam- 
mering tongue addresses God as his reconciled Father, 
and whose faith is clouded by many infirmities. 

1 John 1:7 — "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all 
sin." Rom. 8:1 — "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that 
are in Christ Jesus." 

24. But is not the righteousness of some believers 
much greater than that of others? For instance, is not 
that of Mary the mother of Jesus, the Apostle John, ihe 
Apostle Paul, etc., greater than that of the penitent thief? 

There are great differences with respect to inherent 
righteousness attained through sanctification ; but with 



Chap. XIX.] THE GOSPEL CALL. 215 

respect to imputed righteousness which alone is t'ne 
ground of the forgiveness of sins and the favor of God, 
all are alike. No righteousness of Christ is attainable, 
either in this world or the next, which the humblest child 
of God does not already have. 

Rom. 3:22 — "Even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ 
unto all them that believe; for there is no distinction." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE GOSPEL CALL. 

1. What is meant by the Order of Salvation? 

The process of the Holy Spirit in conferring faith and 
working through its activity ; or the series of acts, where- 
by the Holy Spirit confers, sustains and works through, 
faith. 

2. Where do we find a popular summary of this 
Order? 

In the Catechism, Creed, Part III : "The Holy Ghost 
hath called me by the Gospel, enlightened me by His 
gifts, and sanctified and preserved me in the true faith, 
in like manner as He calls, gathers, enlightens and sanc- 
tifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and preserves 
it in union with Jesus Christ in the true faith." 

3. What are the acts belonging to this Order? 

The Call, Illumination, Regeneration and Conversion, 
Mystical Union, and Sanctification. 

4. What difficulty is experienced in their treatment? 
The line between them is not always sharply drawn. 

They overlap one another. So close, too. is their connec- 
tion that one act in its wider sense sometimes stands by 
synecdoche for what in the strictest sense is designated 
by another term. 

5. What is the Call? 

The announcement to men of God's gracious will and 



2l6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIX. 

the provision He has made for their salvation through 
the mediatorial work of Christ, accompanied by the invi- 
tation to accept these blessings through faith (Matt. 
22:3-9, 14). 

6. What two things concur in the calif 

The presentation through the preaching of the Word 
of the great truths of the Gospel, as intended for each in- 
dividual ; and the impressing of these truths inwardly 
upon the heart and conscience, so as to influence a deci- 
sion of man's will. 

John 6:44 — "No man can come unto me except the Father that sent me 
draw him." 1 Cor. 12:3 — "No man can say Jesus is Lord but in the Holy 
Spirit." 

7. Is it true, then, that there is a double Word of 
God, and that besides the outward Word which is offered 
to all, there is an inner Word which is offered to only a 
few? 

"That many are called and few are chosen is not owing 
to the fact that the meaning of the call, made through the 
Word, is as though God were to say : 'Outwardly, through 
the Word, I indeed call to my Kingdom all of you, to 
whom I give my Word, yet, in my heart, I intend it not 
for all, but only for a few ; for it is my will that the 
greater part of those whom I call through the Word 
should not be enlightened or converted, but be and remain 
lost, although, through the Word, I declare myself to them 
otherwise.' For this would be to assign to God contra- 
dictory wills. That is, it would thus be taught that God, 
who is eternal truth, would be contrary to Himself ; and 
yet God punishes the fault when one thing is declared 
and another is thought and meant in the heart (Ps. 5:9; 
12:2 sq.)" (Formula of Concord, 655). Cf. Chapter 

XXIV, 22. 

8. Is there, therefore, an inner presence of the Holy 
Spirit with the Word wherever preached? 

Always. The differences in results in the call do not 
depend upon differences in God's will, or upon the call 



Chap. XIX.] THE GOSPEL CALL. 21J 

having an irresistible efficacy attached to it in one case, 
and having no efficacy attached to it in the other. The 
efficacy of the Word and call is constant; the difference 
in results is determined by a difference in man's attitude 
towards the call. 

9. How has this been confessionally stated ? 

The reason why "few receive the Word and follow it, 
and the greater number despise the Word and will not 
come to the wedding" is "the perverse will of man, who 
rejects or perverts the means and instrument of the Holy 
Ghost, which God offers him through the call, and resists 
the Holy Ghost who wishes to be efficacious, and works 
through the Word, as Christ says (Matt. 23:37), 'How 
often would I have gathered thee together, and ye would 
not.' " 

10. But does not Rom. 8: 28, "Whom he predestinated 
them he also called," restrict the call to a class, viz., to 
those predestinated from all eternity, and ultimately 
"glorified"? 

No. Paul does not say that none were called except 
the predestinated, or none were called except the justified; 
but he exhibits the succession of acts through which those 
at last glorified are brought to salvation. These are in the 
order mentioned, Predestination, Vocation, Justification, 
Glorification.* 

11. What attributes belong, therefore, to the calif 

It is earnest, serious, sufficient and efficacious. Matt. 
23 : 37, cited under Q. 9, furnishes the proof, even though 
there were none other from the universality of grace 
(Chapter IX, 10). 

12. To whom is the call addressed? 

To those who in this world are not by faith partakers 
of Christ. 



*See my Commentary on Romans, p. 172. 



2l8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIX. 

Col. 2:12 — "Ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from 
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the 
promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Luke 1:79 — "Tq» 
shine upon them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of, death, to guide 
our feet into the way of peace." Matt. 11:28 — "Come unto me all ye that 
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

13. To what does it urge? 

Acts 26:17, 18 — "Unto whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they 
may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, 
that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them 
that are sanctified by faith in me." 1 Pet. 2:9 — "Who called you out of 
darkness into his marvellous light." 

14. By what means does the call come? 

By the external Word as the ever efficacious instrument 
through which the Holy Spirit works. 

Rom. 10:14, 17 — "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not 
heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher? So belief cometh of 
hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ." 

The office of the Law, as we shall learn, at the proper 
place, is to prepare the way for the preaching of the 
Gospel (Gal. 3 : 24). It is not Law, but Gospel which is 
the proper means of the call. 

Rom. 1:16 — "The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
that believeth." Matt. 16:15 — "Preach the Gospel to the whole creation." 

The announcement of the grace of God in Christ is 
Gospel, and not Law. 

Nor does the Word come only in its general form, but 
as applied to individuals in the Sacraments. "Christ 
causes the promise of the Gospel to be offered not only in 
general, but through the Sacraments, which He attaches 
as seals of the promise, He seals and confirms it to every 
believer." 

15. But does the Gospel come to all in the same form 
or degree? 

It is not only God's will that all should be saved, (i Tim. 
2:4), but Christ has commanded that the Gospel should 
be proclaimed everywhere and to all men (Matt. 28: 19; 
Mark 16:15). But that the Gospel is preached at all 
times and in all lands and to an equal degree cannot be 
affirmed. Paul says that it is the power of God unto sal- 



Chap. XIX.] THE GOSPEL CALL. 2IO, 

vation "to the Jew first and also to the Greek." It was a 
dispensation hid in God for ages, and only made known 
in a late period (Eph. 3 : 5, 9, 10). Even believers of the 
Old Testament dispensation received it in a very vague 
and indefinite form (Matt. 13: 17). The call of individu- 
als of different nationalities proceeds successively. The 
history of the entire missionary activity oi the Church is 
outlined in Acts 1 : 8. 

"Ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria 
and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 

It is only as the end of the world approaches that the 
will and command of Christ are absolutely fulfilled. 

Matt. 24:14 — "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the 
whole world for a testimony unto all the nations: and then shall the end 
come." 

16. What results from the consideration of this in- 
equality? 

Difficulties are suggested which we should candidly ac- 
knowledge we cannot explain. Theology deals with re- 
vealed facts, not with suppositions. "When we see that 
God gives His Word at one place, but not at another ; re- 
moves it from one place, and allows it to remain at an- 
other ... in these and similar questions, Paul fixes a 
limit as to how far we should go" (Formula of Concord, 

659). 

Rom. 11:22 — "Behold the goodness and severity of God: toward them 
that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in 
his goodness; otherwise thou shalt also be cut off." 

The doctrine of the call comes as a practical matter to 
those who have heard the Gospel. It is not for them to 
speculate concerning those who have not heard it, or who 
have not heard it to the same degree, or under similar 
favorable circumstances. 

Deut. 29:29 — "The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the 
things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever." 

17. Does this mean that we are not to be concerned 
about the fact that there are many millions who have not 
heard the call? 



220 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XIX. 

By no means. But since the call does not come except 
through the preaching of the Word, and in order that this 
Word be preached, men must be sent (Rom. 10: 14 sqq.), 
and as, further, it is Christ's command that the call be 
addressed all men, this becomes the great motive for 
missionary activity. His will that the call be made uni- 
versal lays an inevitable duty upon those whom He has 
called and commissioned as His ambassadors (2 Cor. 
5:20; Matt. 28: 18, 19). 

18. Is there not a preparatory work of the Holy Spirit 
even prior to and without the Gospel, zvhich is sometimes 
termed a call or calling? 

There are "invitations and incentives to inquire after 
the worship and people of God," sometimes termed "the 
indirect call," but not a call in the proper sense. "For 
they do not have as their immediate end the giving of 
eternal salvation to man or the knowledge of Christ as 
Redeemer, but only the bringing of men to the gate of the 
true church" (Quenstedt). Such are the traces of God's 
Providential government of the universe, and the voice of 
conscience. 

Rom. 1:20 — "The invisible things of him since the creation of the world 
are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even 
his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse." 2:15 
— "They show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience 
bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing 
or else excusing them." Acts 17:23 — "What, therefore, ye worship in ig- 
norance, him declare I unto you," etc. v. 27 — "That they should seek God 
if haply they might find him." Rom. to: 18 — "Their sound went out into 
all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." 

The early apologists of Christianity, following St. Paul 
on the Areopagus, appealed to these convictions and in- 
centives, as in the words of Tertullian, "O testimonium 
animae naturaliter Christianae !" and in what Justin 
Martyr and others wrote concerning the Logos sper- 
matikos. 



Chap. XIX.] THE GOSPEL CALL. 221 

Another form of indirect influence is through the re- 
ports concerning Christianity diffused among the heathen. 

i Thess. i :8 — "In every place your faith to Godward is gone forth." 

19. Was the Gospel call addressed those zvho lived 
tinder the Old Testament? 

Yes, from Gen. 3: 15 on. The fourth chapter of Ro- 
mans shows the identity of the mode of salvation under 
the Old and New Testament. Abraham was justified by 
faith in the promise (Rom. 4:3). That promise given 
him, before circumcision, was the basis of the call, trust- 
ing which he went forth "not knowing whither" (Heb. 
11:8). There was a difference in degree of explicit- 
ness ; but call and promise were otherwise the same. (See 
Chapter XVI, 4.) The Gospel in the Old Testament of- 
fered God's grace in and through the promise of a media- 
tion and Mediator whom God would, in due time, pro- 
vide (Chapter XVII, 14). This promise being accepted 
so far as then revealed, was the ground of the righteous- 
ness of the Old Testament saints. 

Acts 10:43 — "To him bear all the prophets witness, that through his name 
every one that believeth on him shall receive remission ot sins." 

20. Was there not a difference between the scope of 
the call in the Old Testament and the New Testament? 

Yes. For while under the Old Testament it was par- 
ticularistic and addressed only to those who belonged to 
the chosen people, under the New Testament, it is uni- 
versal. 

Eph. 3 14-6 — "The mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not 
made known unto the sons of men as it hath now been revealed unto his 
holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs 
and fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of the promise in 
Christ Jesus through the Gospel." Acts 10:45 — "They of the circumcision 
that believed were amazed, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out 
the gift of the Holy Spirit." 



222 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XX. 



CHAPTER XX. 

ILLUMINATION. 

1. In what state does the Gospel call find man? 

He is of himself able neither to respond to it, nor even 
to understand what it means. 

2. How is this taught in our Confessions? 
"Although man's reason or natural understanding has 

still indeed a dim spark of the knowledge that there is a 
God, as also (Rom. I : 19 sqq.) of the doctrine of the 
Law ; yet it is so ignorant, blind and perverted, that when 
even the most able and learned men on earth read or hear 
the Gospel of the Son of God and the promise of eternal 
salvation, they cannot, from their own powers, perceive, 
apprehend, understand or believe and regard it true, but 
the more diligence and earnestness they employ in order 
to comprehend, with their reason, those spiritual things, 
the less they understand or believe, and before they be- 
come enlightened or taught of the Holy Ghost, they re- 
gard all this as only foolishness or fictions" (Formula of 
Concord). 

3. Is this statement Scriptural? 

1 Cor. 2:14 — "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God: for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because 
they are spiritually judged." 1:21 — "Seeing that, in the wisdom of God, 
the world, through its wisdom, knew not God." Eph. 4:17, 18 — "The Gen- 
tiles walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understand- 
ing, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, 
because of the hardening of their heart." Matt. 13:13 — "Seeing they see 
not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand." Rom. 3:11 — 
"There is none that understandeth." 

Hence man, in his natural state is called darkness, and 
is said to dwell in darkness. 

Eph. 5:8 — "Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord." Acts 
26:18 — "To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light." 
John 1:5 — "The light shineth in the darkness and the darkness apprehended 
it not." Luke 1:79 — "To shine upon them that sit in darkness and in the 
shadow of death." 



Chap. XX.] ILLUMINATION. 223 

4. What illustration of this can be cited? 

"The prayers of saints, in which they pray that they 
may be taught, enlightened and sanctified of God. Thus 
they declare that those things which they ask of God they 
cannot have from their own natural powers ; as in Ps. 
119 alone, David prays more than ten times that God 
may impart to him understanding. For similar prayers 
in the writings of Paul, see Eph. i : 17; Col. 1 : 19; Phil. 
1:9" (Formula of Concord, 554). 

Luther, in Preface to First German edition of his 
Works (Walch XIV, 424), calls attention to the prayers 
of David in Ps. 119 for enlightenment and instruction, as 
made by one who had the Books of Moses in his hands, 
but who needed "a true Master"' to interpret their 
meaning. 

5. Is man's natural condition simply one of ignorance? 
No. It is more. It is not simply one of the lack of 

knowledge, but one of perversion, corruption and hostil- 
ity to the truth. "God's Word testifies that the under- 
standing, heart and will of the natural unregenerate man 
in divine things are not only turned entirely from God, 
but also turned and perverted against God to every evil ; 
also that he is not only weak, feeble, impotent and dead 
to good, but also through Original Sin, he is so lament- 
ably perverted, infected and corrupted that, by his dispo- 
sition and nature, he is entirely evil, perverse and hostile 
to God" (Formula of Concord, 555). 

6. Scriptural proofs? 

Rom. 8:7 — "The mind of the flesh" (i. e. of the natural man, John 3:6) 
"is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither 

indeed can be." Gal. 5:17 — "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit 

for these are contrary the one to the other." Jer. 17:9 — "The heart is 
deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" 
1 Cor. 1:18 — "The word of the cross is to them that are perishing foolish- 



ness. 



7. What, therefore is necessary, in order that the Gos- 
pel call may reach the end for which it has been intended? 
Unless there be with it a peculiar activity of the Holy 



224 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XX. 

Spirit rendering man receptive and docile with respect to 
its message, it is fruitless (Is. 28: 11, 12; John 1:5). 

8. What is this activity? 

Illumination, a process whereby there is communicated 
not only new truths but the power to apprehend and ap- 
preciate them, and the desire to learn their real signifi- 
cance. It removes prejudices, disarms hostility, properly 
interprets the facts taught in the Gospel message, shows 
what they are in their relations, and makes of them a per- 
sonal application. It imparts, maintains and cultivates a 
habit or frame of mind which regards divine truths in a 
light, not only unknown but contrary to that of Nature. 

1 Cor. 2:14, 15 — "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit 
of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, be- 
cause they are spiritually judged." 

9. Hoiv is this stated in our Confessions? 

"The Holy Ghost opens the understanding and heart to 
understand the. Scriptures, and to give heed to the Word, 
as it is written (Luke 24:45), 'Then opened he their 
mind, that they might understand the scriptures' ;* also 
(Acts 16:14) 'Lydia heard us, whose heart the Lord 
opened'" (Formula of Concord, 557). 

10. Give a few more Scripture texts referring to Il- 
lumination. 

2 Cor. 4:6 — "God hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Eph. 1:18, 19 — 
"Having the eyes of your understanding enlightened, that ye may know 
what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inherit- 
ance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness ot his power toward us 
who believe." John 8:12 — "I am the Light of the world: he that followeth 
me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." 

11. What are the Means of Illumination? 
The Word of God. 

Ps. 119:105 — "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my 
path." v. 130 — "The opening of thy words giveth light." 2 Pet. 1:19 — 
"The word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a 
light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in 
vour hearts." Rom. 14:17. 



* Gerhard on "Harmony of the Gospels": Non solum exteriori vaticini- 
orum explicatione, sed etiam interna mentis illuminatione. 



Chap. XX.] ILLUMINATION. 225 

Both Law, 

Rom. 3:20 — "Through the law cometh the knowledge of sin." 

And Gospel, 

2 Cor. 4:4 — "Lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should 
dawn upon them." 

12. Is there no immediate Illumination? 

No instance can be found in Holy Scripture. Even 
where the miraculous element enters, as in the conversion 
of Paul and the conversion of the thousands at Pente- 
cost, it is the Word through which the Spirit works ; 
to Paul, the words from the open heavens, "Why perse- 
cutest thou me" ; to the multitude, the sermon of Peter. 

13. But is not Illumination to be sought in the abstrac- 
tion of the mind from earthly things, and in awaiting 
silently a supernatural divine light? 

There is no benefit to be derived from turning from 
other objects except to fix the attention upon some word 
of God or its application in our experience ; nor is there 
any supernatural divine light to be expected except that 
for which we have the promise in the ordinary use of 
Holy Scripture. Meditation and Prayer are to be con- 
stantly employed, as exercises whereby we resort to the 
Word. (See Chapter I, 40.) Here the words of one of 
the collects belong: "Blessed Lord, Who hast caused all 
Holy Scripture to be written for our learning: Grant 
that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn 
and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort 
of Thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast 
the blessed hope of everlasting life" (General Collect 49, 
"Common Service"). ■ 

14. Is the illuminating power of the Word restricted 
to the acts of hearing, reading and meditating? 

No. The word that has been heard and laid to heart is 
assimilated into the life of the one who has received it 
by faith, and becomes an abiding source of light and com- 
fort. "It is called 'the engrafted word' (James 1:21). 



226 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XX. 

If united with the hearts of hearers and readers, like food 
with the body, leaven with the mass, seed with the field, 
the graft with the tree, as an ordinary means of the Hoiy 
Spirit, it can illumine no less than save souls" (Hollaz). 
(2 Cor. 3:2, 3.) 

15. What two kinds of illumination are there? 

They correspond to the diverse offices of Law and Gos- 
pel. The effect of illumination by the Law is to convict of 
sin (Rom. 3:20 [see above, 11], 7'. 7). This it does not 
simply by revealing external violations of God's com- 
mands, but especially by discerning "the thoughts and 
intents of the heart" (Heb. 4: 12). Illumination by the 
Gospel leads to faith, and renders "wise unto salvation" 
(2 Tim. 3: 14). The two forms of illumination are con- 
trasted in 2 Cor. 3 : 6-9. 

16. What are the gifts communicated by iliis illumin- 
ation, as referred to in our Catechism, "enlightened me 
with his gifts"? 

Is. 11:2 — "And the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wis- 
dom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowl- 
edge and the fear of Jehovah" — "the seven-fold gift of the Spirit." 

17. Is Illumination limited to the intellect? 

It belongs to it primarily, but through the intellect in- 
fluences also the will. As the will can arrest the process 
of illumination by its resistance when a knowledge of sin 
unavoidably makes itself felt, the gracious working of the 
Spirit enters to overcome this resistance and communi- 
cate more knowledge. Legal illumination may be arrested 
at any point, unless the will partake of the movement. 
The highest degree is attained only subsequently to the 
entrance of faith. When through faith we have been led 
to love God we learn to know Him as He is. 

"If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether 
it is of God" (John 7:17). "In thy light shall we see light" (Ps. 36:9). 

18. Illumination, then, is gradual? 

Undoubtedly. The natural knowledge precedes the 



Chap. XX.] ILLUMINATION. 227 

supernatural. There is even a natural and external 
knowledge of what has been supernaturally revealed. 
The supernatural knowledge begins with legal illumina- 
tion, or "awakening," which has various degrees, and is 
followed by evangelical illumination which also has its 
successive parts, before, cotemporaneous with and after 
faith, or, as Paul says, "from faith to faith" (Rom. I : 17). 
There is no irresistible grace. The process may be ar- 
rested at any time, during this life, by the array of man's 
will against that of God. 

19. But was not the illumination of Paul on the way 
to Damascus sudden and complete? 

In the first place, we must distinguish between the ex- 
traordinary circumstances attending Paul's conversion, 
pertaining rather to his preparation for the Apostolate, 
with his call, as he says to the Galatians, "not from men, 
neither through man, but through Jesus Christ and God 
the Father" (Gal 1:1), and the various acts which led to 
the conversion itself. Secondly, we note that the vision 
of the Risen Jesus convinced Paul of the truth of the 
claims of Him he had been persecuting. Nevertheless 
there had been years of preparation for the critical hour, 
and the sermon of Stephen had impressed truths, with 
which Paul was struggling inwardly, while he tried to 
escape their force by his outward violence. With the 
occurrence on his journey, his illumination simply passed 
from one stage to another, which also gradually- pro- 
gressed as the record in Acts and in the Epistle to the 
Galatians shows. Moments there are seemingly decisive, 
in the lives of nations and churches as well as of indi- 
viduals, which are only the culmination of long processes, 
that are hidden from view. 

20. What illustrations have been given ? 
Chemnitz says that "these matters are best learned not 

from idle disputations, or from the examples of others, 



228 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XX. 

but from the serious exercises of one's own repentance. 
But since most live without any exercise of faith and 
prayer, they accumulate many inextricable things con- 
cerning things of which they have no knowledge."* 

2i. What caution must be employed in the study of 
all such examples? 

Not to make any particular case the standard according 
to which all others are judged (i Cor. 12:4-6). Our 
faith must be tested according to the standards laid down 
in Holy Scripture. (See Chapter XVII, 44, 45, 47, 
48, 49.) 

22. Is the term Illumination always restricted to the 
particular stage of grace just explained? 

It is sometimes used ecclesiastically in a wide sense for 
the entire work of grace as deliverance from the darkness. 
Thus Chemnitz, in his ''Harmony," on John 1 : 9, says : 
"(1) In contrast with the darkness of ignorance He 
illumines us by the revelation of His Word and the en- 
lightening of His Spirit, unto true knowledge. (2) In 
contrast with the darkness of sins, He illumines us by 
the imputation of righteousness, the forgiveness of sins 
and the renewal begun in this life. (3) In contrast with 



* With this introduction he enters into a minute examination of the various 
stages which Augustine has recorded in his "Confessions" concerning his con- 
version. (Loci Theologici 1:185.) Hollazius has quoted from Calixt the ac- 
count which a Jew, Gerson, had given concerning his experience. He was a 
pawnbroker and had loaned a Christian woman eight shillings for which she 
pledged a German New Testament. Finding it in his possession, he undertook 
to read it, "not that 1 had any doubt concerning the truth of the Jewish re- 
ligion, or because I believed any article of the Christian faith, but to learn to 
know what the influential error could be which had misled and ruined so 
many thousands. In the presence of two of my relatives I read it through, not 
without blasphemies. But meanwhile my heart was touched, and when I 
noticed that the Evangelists and Apostles and Christ himself appealed so 
often to the Old Testament, and continually cited passage after passage 
from it, I was induced to read it the second time and secretly, without the 
knowledge of any one, not even of my wife, and to compare the passages 
cited with the text of the Old Testament. When I did this, such light shone 
upon me that for it I give God everlasting thanks." "Here," adds Holla- 
zius, "who does not not see that there was illumination which for a time 
was without regeneration and sanctirication"? 



Chap. XXL] REGENERATION. 229 

the darkness of God's wrath, He causes the face of God 
to shine upon us by reconciliation and adoption. (4) In 
contrast with the darkness of miseries, he beams upon us 
with consolation, relief and deliverance. (5) In contrast 
with the external darkness of death and damnation, He 
illumines us with eternal life and salvation (2 Tim. 1 : 10 ; 
Col. 1:12)." Here illumination becomes synonymous 
with salvation. It was also used by the early Greek 
writers of the Church for Baptism. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

REGENERATION. 

1. What is Regeneration? 

The act of the Holy Spirit by which new and spiritual 
life is imparted to man who is dead in sins. 

John 3:3 — "Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

2. How is it related to Illumination ? 

By illumination man is brought to see his lost condi- 
tion and to learn of the provision made in Christ for his 
salvation. This act, as it progresses, includes a certain 
disposition of the will towards the offered grace. Regen- 
eration occurs when the act of self-surrender to God's 
will and promise is accomplished by the inner workings 
of the Holy Spirit in Word or Sacrament. Illumination 
influences the will, but it belongs to regeneration to deter- 
mine the decision. 

3. What brief definition, then, can be given? 

"Regeneration is the act whereby one is made believ- 
ing" ; or "the act by which faith is given," or "the act by 
which faith is conferred." (See Chapter XVII, 6.) 

4. How is this taught in our Confessions? 

"That we may obtain this faith, the office of teaching 
the Gospel and administering the Sacraments was insti- 
tuted. For through the Word and Sacraments, as through 



23O A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXL 

instruments, the Holy Ghost is given who worketh faith 
where and when it pleases God in them that hear the 
Gospel" (Augsburg Confession, Art. V). 

"Man is and remains an enemy of God, until by the 
power of the Holy Ghost, through the preached and 
heard Word, out of pure grace, without any co-opera- 
tion of his own, he is converted, made believing, regen- 
erated and renewed'' (Formula of Concord, 552, cf. 

563). 

"How is this effected?" asks our Catechism, and then 
answers : "When our heavenly Father gives us His Holy 
Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word 
and live a godly life here on earth, and in heaven forever" 
(On Second Petition of Lord's Prayer). 

5. But is it not an extreme statement to maintain, 
that, even after man has been brought to see his sins, and 
to learn of the offered grace, he cannot, of his own 
powers, believe? 

The answer may be learned by considering the follow- 
ing texts : 

Phil. 2:13 — "For it is God who worketh in you both tq will and to work, 
for his good pleasure." Here the will to do God's will is ascribed to a 
work of God in man. 2 Cor. 3:5 — "Our sufficiency is from God." Phil. 
1:6 — "He who began a good work in you, will perfect it." John 15:5 — 
"Apart from me, ye can do nothing." Here Augustine notes that our Lord 
does not say: "Apart from me, ye can act only with difficulty," or "Apart 
from me, ye can do nothing great," but absolutely "nothing," i. e. "nothing 
whatever." John 6:44 — "No man can come to me, except the Father that 
sent me draw me." 1 Cor. 12:3 — "No one can say, Jesus is Lord, but in 
the Holy Spirit." Eph. 2:8 — "By grace have ye been saved through faith; 
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." John 6:29 — "This is the 
work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." Phil. 1:29 — "To 
you, it hath been granted, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on 
him, but also to suffer on his behalf." 1 Cor. 4:7 — "What hast thou which 
thou dist not receive?" 

6. What figures with respect to men's inability are em- 
ployed by our Confessions? 

"The Scriptures teach that man is not only weak and 
sick, but also entirely dead (Eph. 2:1, 5; Col. 2:13) 
As now a man who is physically dead cannot, of his own 



Chap. XXL] REGENERATION. 23 1 

powers prepare or adapt himself to recover temporal life, 
so man who is spiritually dead in sins cannot, of his own 
strength, adapt or apply himself to the acquisition of 
spiritual and heavenly righteousness and life, unless he be 
delivered and quickened by the Son of God from the death 
of sin" (Formula of Concord, 553). 

"Of his own natural powers, he can begin, work or 
co-operate in spiritual things, and in his own conversion 
and regeneration, as little as a stone or a block or clay" 
(lb. 556). 

7. But does not this practically deny mans respon- 
sibility? 

No. "For in another respect, man is not a stone or 
block. For a stone or block does not resist that which 
moves it, and does not understand and is not sensible of 
what is being done with it, as a man, as long as he is not 
converted, with his will resists God the Lord. And it is 
■nevertheless true that a man before his conversion is still 
a rational creature, having an understanding and will, yet 
not an understanding with respect to divine things, or a 
will to will something good and salutary. Yet he can do 
nothing for his conversion, and is, in this respect, much 
worse than a stone and block ; for he resists the Word and 
will of God, until God awakens him from the death of 
sin, enlightens and renews him. And although God does 
not force man to become godly (for those who always 
resist the Holy Ghost and persistently oppose the known 
truth, as Stephen says of the hardened Jews [Acts 7: 51] 
will not be converted), yet God the Lord draws the man 
whom He wishes to convert, and draws him too in such 
a way that his understanding, in place of 'darkened' be- 
comes enlightened, and his will, in place of perverse, be- 
comes obedient. The Scriptures call this 'creating a new 
heart' (Ps. 51: 10)." 



232 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXI. 

8. From this I understand that man's zvili has a cer- 
tain freedom ? 

It is always free to resist and reject the offered grace. 
(See Chapter XIX, 9.) While regeneration comes alto- 
gether and alone of God's free gift, the absence of regen- 
eration is due to man's repulse of what God has offered. 

9. But does the resistance of the will to the grace of 
God ever entirely cease ? 

Never in this life. 

Rom. 7:23 — "I see a law in my members warring against the law of my 
mind." Gal. 5:17 — "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit." 

But in the regenerate, this resistance is constantly 
lamented, and is contrary to the main purpose of the life. 

Rom. 7:25 — "I of myself with the mind, indeed, serve the law of God." 
v. 22 — "I delight in the law of God after the inward man." 

On the other hand, one not regenerate wholly resists 
God and is altogether a servant of sin (John 8:34; 
Rom. 6: 16). 

10. How is Regeneration zvr ought ? 

Through the Word and Sacraments (see above, 4) ; 
also, "By this means, and in no other way, namely through 
His holy Word, when it is heard as preached or is read, 
and the holy Sacraments when they are used according 
to the Word, God desires to call men to eternal salvation, 
to draw them to Himself, and to convert, regenerate and 
sanctify them" (Formula of Concord, 562; Rom. 10: 17; 
1 Cor. 1:21; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1 : 23) . 

11. Is Regeneration zvr ought by all parts of God's 
Word? 

Only by the Gospel. For that the Law does not re- 
generate is manifest from 

2 Cor. 3:6 — "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life." Rom. 3:20 — 
"Through the law, cometh the knowledge of sin." 

For the regenerating efficacy of the Gospel : 

1 Cor. 4:15 — "In Christ Jesus I begot you through the Gospel." Tohn 
6:63 — "The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life." 

Hence the Augsburg Confession (Art. V), declares 



Chap. XXI.] REGENERATION. 233 

"the Holy Ghost who worketh faith in them that hear the 
Gospel, to wit, that God, not for our own merits but for 
Christ's sake, justifieth those who believe." 

12. How do the Sacraments regenerate? 

Not apart or as separate instrumentalities from the 
Gospel, but only as means by which the word of the Gos- 
pel is applied to the individual. Baptism is by pre-emi- 
nence "the Sacrament of regeneration." 

John 3:5 — "Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 
the kingdom of God." Tit. 3:5 — "According to his mercy he saved us, 
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." 
Gal. 3:26, 27 — "Ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; for 
as many of you as were baptized unto Christ, have put on Christ." 

13. Is Regeneration a ''substantial ' or an "accidental" 
change, as was discussed in the Flacian controversy? 

There is no destruction of personality in regeneration ; 
but only the endowment of the hitherto unregenerate per- 
son with a new life. (See Chapter VII, 33 ; VIII, 35-38.) 
The "stony heart" and "the heart of flesh" (Ez. 11 : 19), 
the "old man" and the "new" are the same, but their 
properties have changed. 

14. Is Regeneration instantaneous or gradual? 

The answer depends upon the precise meaning of Re- 
generation. If it comprehend the entire activity of the 
Holy Spirit whereby faith is given and nurtured (for 
faith grows, see Chapter XVII, 29) , it is gradual. But if 
restricted to the beginning of spiritual life, "the enkind- 
ling of a spark of faith," it is instantaneous, like justifi- 
cation, its inseparable result. 

15. Who are subjects of Regeneration? 

The question back of this is whether infants as well as 
adults are capable of faith, and therefore, subjects of re- 
generation. Here, in the absence of express statements of 
Scripture, we must beware, on the one hand, of setting 
limits to w r hat God can or may do, and, on the other, 
of prescribing what He must do. 



234 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXL 

John 3:8 — "The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice 
thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth: so is 
every one that is born of the Spirit." 

It almost seems as though the words of our Lord to 
Nicodemus concerning the new birth have in view the 
declaration as to the mysteriousness of God's work in 
Eccl. 11:5. 

"As thou knowest not what is the way of the wind nor how the bones 
do grow in the womb of her that is with child, even so thou knowest not 
the work of God who doeth all." 

16. What cautions, therefore, are to be observed? 

(a) That the details concerning the regeneration of 
adults stated in connection with directions concerning the 
missionary preaching of the Apostolic Church, or in letters 
to New Testament congregations, be not made the absolute 
standards whereby to decide the question of the possibility 
of infant regeneration. When, for example, in the tenth 
chapter of Romans, Paul is making his most urgent ap- 
peal for sending missionaries to the heathen, he declares 
that, in order that they be brought to faith, they must 
hear the Gospel. Such declaration cannot be construed, 
however, so as to deny that God may have other modes of 
working with infants. 

(b) That we ever keep in mind that the efficacy of 
faith for justification depends not upon its perfection or 
stage of development, but solely upon its contents. The 
question is one simply of the possibility for receptive 
capacity wrought by the Holy Spirit (Chapter XVII, 29, 
30). Faith, as we have learned (Chapter XVII, 11), 
is never a ground, but only an organ for receiving God's 
grace. 

(c) That the distinctions between "Direct'' and "Dis- 
cursive," "Habitual" and "Active," "Implicit" and "Ex- 
plicit Faith" (Chapter XVII, 7, 8, 9) be also taken into 
account. 

(d) That, in our estimate, we include also the fact that, 
apart from and before all intelligence and ability to com- 



Chap. XXL] REGENERATION. 235 

municate with the outward world and self-consciousness, 
children have sin, and that this is not a physical, but a 
moral and spiritual defect. (See Augsburg Confession, 
Art. II; see above, Chapter VIII, 7.) What reason for 
denying the possibility of infant faith can 'they allege who 
acknowledge the fact of innate depravity, and the innate' 
knowledge of God? 

(e) That as the object of faith (see Chapter XVII, 15) 
is simply the promise of God, we dare not deny the pos- 
sibility of faith where the apprehension of what is em- 
braced in the promise does not rise above the standard of 
the saints in the earlier period of the Old Testament: 
Faith in its ultimate essence is such reliance upon God 
that it is ready to accept anything that He teaches or to 
do anything that He directs. Its objects grow in number 
and clearness with the growth of revelation. The test of 
its reality is not the extent of its range, but its inner dis- 
position towards God. So whatever faith can be claimed 
for infants may be nothing more than an attitude of heart 
and mind towards God which, with growing intelligence, 
is to grasp one promise and revealed fact after another. 

17. What proofs are there of the possibility of infant 
faith and regeneration? 

(a) The influence of the Holy Spirit in an extraor- 
dinary way upon certain infants before birth, and shortly 
after. 

Jer. 1:5 — "Before thou earnest out of the womb I sanctified thee." Luke 
1 141 — "When Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in 
her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit." Ps. 22:9 — "Thou 
didst make me trust when I was upon my mother's breasts." 

(b) The express ascription of faith to little children. 

Matt. 18:6 — "Whoso shall cause one of these little ones who believe on 
me to stumble." 

That this passage refers to "little children" literally, 
and not to believers in general, as in I John 2 : 18, is mani- 
fest from the context (v. 3). Mark 10:13-16 shows 
that the children were such as were carried in arms. "They 



236 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXI. 

were indeed "called"' (Matt. 18:2), and may have been 
four or five years old, nevertheless even, in such, faith 
could not have arisen from human instruction, but must 
be ascribed to an inner divine working" (Spener). We 
are inclined to ascribe the faith of these children to the at- 
tractive personality of Christ. The Word came to them in 
His look and manner and the gentle but authoritative 
tones of His voice, which called forth their confidence, 
and prepared them for the loving reception of all that 
He would say and do. 

(c) From their right to entrance into the kingdom of 
heaven, and the fact that such entrance is through re- 
generation. 

John 3:3 — "Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." v. 5 — "Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God." 

18. How has the doctrine of infant faith or regenera- 
tion been guarded? 

"The Holy Ghost is efficacious in them according to 
their measure." "Although, therefore, we do not under- 
stand of what nature that action of God in infants is, 
nevertheless it is certain that in them new and holy move- 
ments are wrought, just as in John, when, in the womb, 
new movements occurred. For although we must not 
imagine that infants understand, nevertheless these move- 
ments and inclinations to believe Christ and to love God, 
are, in a measure, like the movements of faith and love. 
This is what we say when we say that infants have faith" 
(Wittenberg Concord [1536], signed by Luther, Me- 
lanchthon, Bugenhagen, Jonas, Bucer and others). 

"There is no doubt that infants, members of the Church 
of Christ do not have such faith, i. e., so explicit, and, so 
to say, so perceptible to sense, as adults, in whom the 
Holy Spirit is efficacious through the external hearing 
of the Gospel" (Brentz, "Apology of Wittenberg Con- 
fession"). 



Chap. XXL] REGENERATION. 2$J 

"When we say that infants believe, it must not be im- 
agined that they know or perceive the movements of 
faith." "Since it is certain that baptized infants are mem- 
bers of the Church, and please God, it is certain also that 
the Holy Spirit is efficacious in them, and, indeed, so 
efficacious that they can receive the grace of God and the 
forgiveness of sins.'' "And although we can neither un- 
derstand nor explain in words what that action and opera- 
tion of the Spirit in baptized infants is, nevertheless from 
the Word of God, it is certain. But this action or opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit in infants we call faith, and say 
that little children believe" (Chemnitz). See Chapter 
XXVII. 

1 8. Can Regeneration be lost? 

This is equivalent to the question whether faith may 
be lost. The answer is Yes. (See Chapter XVII, 36, 37.) 

19. Is not Regeneration as a theological term some- 
times used in a wider sense than that which has thus far 
been considered ? 

In Matt. 19 : 28, "In the regeneration when the Son of 
man shall sit on the throne of his glory," the reference is 
to the renewal and restitution of all things at the Second 
Coming of Christ, according to the promise, Rev. 21 : 5, 

"And he that sitteth on the throne, said, Behold, I make all things new." 
2 Pet. 3:13 — "According to his promise, we look for new heavens and a 
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 

Entrance into the full enjoyment of the culmination of 
the kingdom of glory, is regeneration ; just as entrance 
into the kingdom of grace or its portal, is also called 
regeneration. 

But beside this Biblical usage, its ecclesiastical mean- 
ing has had a considerable latitude, which occasioned 
confusion and rendered a more precise definition and con- 
sistent employment of the term necessary. Of this the 
Formula of Concord says : 

"Because the word 'regeneration' is sometimes em- 



238 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXI. 

ployed for the word 'justification,' it is necessary that 
this word be properly explained, in order that the renewal 
which follows the justification of faith may not be con- 
founded therewith, but that they may properly distin- 
guished from one another. . . . Again it is taken for 
sanctification and renewal" (572-3). (See the entire pas- 
sage for fuller statement.) 

20. Hozv would you distinguish it from Justification 
and Sanctification? 

Regeneration and Justification are both acts of God 
alone ; Sanctification is an act in which man co-operates. 
Regeneration is an act within man ; Justification, an act 
outside of man ; Sanctification begins with an inward act 
and works into the outward life. Regeneration, gives 
faith ; through faith man is justified ; the inevitable result 
of Justification is the beginning of Sanctification. 

21. What synonyms has it? 
The nearest equivalents are : 

(a) Quickening. 

Eph. 2:4, 5 — "God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he 
loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive 
together with Christ." 

(b) Creating anew. 

2 Cor. 5:17 — "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation." Gal. 6:15 
— "Neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
creature." Ps. 51:10. 

22. Are there any other terms that cover to a con- 
siderable extent the same ground? 

The terms Repentance and Conversion are generically 
the same with specific differences. By this we refer, of 
course, to the Biblical terms whose meaning must be de- 
cided by a reference to the original Greek of the New 
Testament. 

23. What is the meaning of Repentance? 

The English word has acquired the meaning of "sor- 
row or contrition for what one has done or left un- 
done," and like "penitence" is etymologically from the 



Chap. XXL] REGENERATION. 239 

same root as "pain.'' But the Greek noun metanoia, used 
twenty-four times, and the verb metanoein, used thirty- 
one times in the New Testament, refer to "a change of 
mind," and are almost equivalent to "conversion," which 
means simply "a radical change," beginning of course in 
the mind or heart. With this agrees the definition, "A 
change of mental and spiritual habit" (Century Dic- 
tionary). 

24. What important result followed a revision of the 
definition? 

The Reformation. Luther wrote in the spring of 15 18 
both to his spiritual father, Staupitz, and to Pope Leo X, 
ascribing his course of protest to the new meaning the 
word had received by his study of the New Testament. 
The cry of John the Baptist, metanoeite (Matt. 3:2), the 
Vulgate had translated : Poenitentiam agite. This came 
to mean "Do penance," or, even when not so superficially 
interpreted, was regarded as equivalent to "Be contrite" 
or "Experience a certain degree of sorrow." But its true 
sense, Luther found, was : "Assume another mind and dis- 
position," "Make a change of mind and a passover of 
spirit, so as to be wise now in heavenly as you were for- 
merly in earthly things, as Paul says (Rom. 12:2), 'Be 
ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.' 

25. How did this discovery influence Luther? 
"While previously there was scarcely a word in all 

Scripture more bitter to me, than the word 'repentance,' 
now there is none that sounds sweeter or more grateful." 
The explanation is that if the pain or sorrow which one 
experiences on account of sin be the condition of forgive- 
ness or justification, one will always be uncertain as to 
whether he have the required amount of sorrow. But 
with the wider meaning of repentance, just as of con- 
version, a two-fold relation is taught. There is something 
from which one turns or changes, viz., sin ; and something 



24O A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXI. 

towards which this act is directed, viz., God, or what is 
the same, God's promise in Christ. 

26. In what, then, does Repentance coincide with Re- 
generation ? 

A change of mind or attitude towards sin and God, is 
attended by a change of life, or the inpartation of new 
life. The command to repent, was not only the announce- 
ment of a requirement, but also the declaration of the 
Gospel and of the presence of divine grace rendering re- 
pentance possible (Titus 2:11-14). 

27. What are the two parts of Repentance? 

"Now Repentance consists properly of these two parts : 
One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience 
through the knowledge of sin ; the other is faith, which, 
born of the promise or absolution, believes that, for 
Christ's sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience 
and delivers it from terrors" (Augsburg Confession, 
Art. XII). 

28. What inferences may be derived from this? 

(1) No true repentance without faith. (2) Wherever 
there is faith, there is repentance. (3) Contrition and 
faith act reciprocally upon each other. With faith, sor- 
row for sin constantly grows and deepens. 'Terrors 
smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin" 
may not be as poignant or be attended with such emotion 
as on the first discovery of guilt, but the hatred of sin be- 
comes a principle that is ever more pervasive and de- 
termined. 

29. What was the first of Luther's XCV Theses? 
"Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying 'Repent 

ye,' etc., intended that the whole life of believers should 
be penitence." 

30. How is this expressed in our Catechism? 
"Baptism signifies that the old Adam is to be drowned 

by daily sorrow and repentance, together with all sins 



Chap. XXL] REGENERATION. 24I 

and evil lusts ; and that again the new man should daily 
come forth, and rise, that shall live in the presence of 
God in righteousness and purity for ever." 

31. In what, however does Repentance differ from 
Regeneration? 

(a) Regeneration is an act of God. Repentance is a 
state of man, resulting from Regeneration. God gives 
Repentance (Acts 5:31; 11 : 18 ; 2 Tim. 2 : 25), just as in 
Regeneration He gives faith. As Regeneration is not 
faith, but the act by which faith is wrought, and as faith 
is an essential part of Repentance, it is through Regenera- 
tion that God effects Repentance. When man is urged to 
repent, he can obey only by the exercise of new powers 
given him in Regeneration. 

(b) Regeneration is more prospective in its look, and 
has reference to the new life. Repentance is more retro- 
spective, and suggests more the state of sin which is being 
forsaken. Or to speak in scholastic terms, the former 
emphasizes the terminus ad quern; the latter, the terminus 
a quo. 

32. How does Conversion differ from Repentance? 
Conversion, like Regeneration, refers properly to the 

activity of God in effecting Repentance. 

33. Hozv does Conversion differ from Regeneration? 
In the wide sense of the term, it includes Regeneration, 

being the activity of God through which the entire change 
with respect to man, both inwardly and outwardly, is ac- 
complished. Illumination, Regeneration and Sanctifica- 
tion, as well as Justification, are thus comprised in one 
term. In a more restricted sense, it is used to describe the 
process whereby Repentance is effected. A man partially 
illumined, and not regenerated could not be said to be con- 
verted. Regeneration, therefore, when regarded as the 
culmination of the call and Illumination, is Conversion in 
the most ordinary sense of the term. If infant regenera- 



242 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXI. 

tion be admitted, Conversion becomes the bringing into 
activity of the new powers given in Regeneration, so that 
the child, with its progressive illumination, is led by the 
Holy Spirit to exercise these new powers in acts of faith. 

34. Can man in any way co-operate in his Conversion? 

Here everything depends upon the definition of Con- 
version. If it be so wide as to embrace Renovation, and 
refer to man's exercise of the powers given him in the 
new birth man can co-operate ; but if it refer to the exer- 
cise of purely natural powers, see above, 3 ; also the fol- 
lowing: 

"In spiritual and divine things, the intellect, heart and 
will of the unregenerate man cannot, in any way, by their 
own natural powers, understand, believe, accept, think, 
will, begin, effect, do, work or concur in working any- 
thing ... so that, in man's nature, since the Fall, there is 
before Regeneration, not the least spark of spiritual power 
present" (Formula of Concord, 552). 

35. Is it right to say that in Conversion the will is 
purely passive? 

"When Luther says that with respect to his conver- 
sion, man is purely passive, i. e., does nothing whatever 
thereto, but only suffers what God wills in him, his mean- 
ing is not that conversion occurs without the preaching 
and hearing of God's Word ; his meaning also is not that 
in conversion no new emotion is awakened in us by the 
Holy Ghost, and no spiritual operation begun ; but he 
means that man of himself, or from his natural powers, 
cannot contribute anything or help to his conversion, and 
that conversion is not only in part, but altogether an 
operation, gift and present and work of the Holy Ghost 
alone, who accomplishes and effects it, by his virtue and 
power, through the Word, in the understanding, heart and 
will of man" (Formula of Concord, 569). 

76. Does this encourage men to be idle and secure with 
respect to their Conversion? 



Chap. XXI.] REGENERATION. 243 

'The mathematical point, in which the liberated will 
begins to act cannot be determined. But when prevenient 
grace, i. e., the first beginnings of faith and conversion are 
given man, immediately a struggle between the flesh and 
the Spirit begins ; and it is manifest that this struggle can- 
not occur without a movement of our will. In the begin- 
ning, the desire is very obscure, the assent languid, the 
obedience weak ; and these gifts ought to grow. But they 
grow in us, not as a log is drawn by violent impulse, or as 
lilies grow without laboring or caring ; but by endeavor- 
ing, by struggling, by asking, by seeking, by beating, and 
that not of ourselves" (Chemnitz, Loci I, 185). Of this 
Paul uses a brilliant illustration in 

2 Tim. 1:6 — "Stir into flame the gift of God that is in thee." 

37. But suppose some one would object: "As I can- 
not perceive the presence of the Holy Spirit, and, without 
this presence, all my efforis are useless, therefore I will 
make no effort to do God's will'' what answer could be 
given ? 

"Sometimes, indeed, the heart perceives that which it 
apprehends in the promise ; but frequently, yea even more 
frequently it experiences that the Holy Ghost hides his 
aid in groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26). 
There one must not inquire as to whether he perceive, 
for strength is made perfect in weakness ; but by faith he 
must rest on God, according to the promise, even though 
he feel nothing ; yea, even though he feel the contrary. 
To this effect, Augustine says : Tf you be not drawn, 
pray that you be drawn' (Chemnitz, lb., 186). See 
also Chapter XVII, 38 sqq.* 



*"The object of the Spirit's work is not to produce in us certain feelings, 
the consciousness of which will make us think better of ourselves, and give 
us confidence towards God. That which He shows us of ourselves is only 
evil; that which He shows us of God is only good. He does not enable us 
to feel or to believe in order that we may be comforted by our feeling or 
faith. Even when working mo.t powerfully in us, he turns our eye away 
from His own work in us, to fix it on God and his love, in Christ Jesus 
our Lord" (Bonar, "God's Way of Peace," 1.39)- 



244 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXII. 

38. Against what errors has the Lutheran Church 
particularly guarded in the treatment of this article?, 

(a) Pelagianism which concedes that man by his own 
powers can turn to God and believe the Gospel. 

(b) Semi-Pelagianism which teaches that while man is 
unable without divine aid to attain salvation, yet he can 
make a beginning, and prepare himself for grace which 
completes the work. 

(c) Synergism which acknowledges that man, of his 
own powers, is too feeble by nature to move towards 
God, nevertheless, when the Holy Spirit makes the begin- 
ning, "the will of man, from its own natural powers, can, 
to a certain extent, although feebly, co-operate." Hence 
Melanchthon erred in the last edition of his Loci, in 
enumerating three causes of conversion, viz., the Holy 
Spirit, the Word and the will of man. 

(d) "Enthusiasm, " which teaches "that God, without 
means, without the hearing of God's Word or the use of 
the holy Sacraments, draws men to Himself and enlight- 
ens, justifies and saves them" (Formula of Concord, 
499). See also Augsburg Confession, Art. V; Apology, 
215; Schmalkald Articles, 332. This will be more amply 
treated under "Means of Grace," Chapter XXIV. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

THE MYSTICAL UNION. 

I. Besides the righteousness of Christ and the gifts 
which it has purchased what else does faith receive? 

Christ Himself who dwells in a peculiar way in every 
regenerate and justified soul. 

Gal. 2:20 — "It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." John 
15:5 — "I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me and I in 
him, the same beareth much fruit." John 14:23 — "My Father will love 
him and we, will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Eph. 3:17 
— "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." 1 Cor. 6:17 — "He 
that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." 



Chap. XXII. ] THE MYSTICAL UNION. 245 

2. Does this mean no more than that the influence or 
the power or the gifts of Christ live in the believer, as a 
parent lives in a child, or a great teacher in his followers ? 

No fair interpretation of the passages above given 
could lead to such doctrine. The power and gifts are 
there, because of the presence of Christ Himself, per- 
vading the entire life of the believer. "It is a state of 
most immediate personal contact, such as is possible only 
within a religious relation" (Kahler). 

3. Is this doctrine treated explicitly in the Church's 
Confessions? 

No; except in the allusion, among false doctrines con- 
cerning the Righteousness of Christ which are repudi- 
ated : "We reject and condemn all the following errors: 
. . . That not God Himself, but only the gifts of God 
dwell in the believer" (Formula of Concord, 503). 

The fuller treatment of the subject in the later Luth- 
eran theologians of the orthodox period (not until after 
the middle of the XVII Century) was to meet the various 
extravagant opinions of a false mysticism which was 
widely prevalent at the time in Germany. 

4. How does Luther treat it? 

"Christ thus inhering and bound up with me" (literally, 
"glued to me," conglutinatus mihi), "and abiding in me, 
lives in me the life which I am living; yea, the life by 
which I thus live, is Christ Himself. . . . This inherence 
frees me from the terrors of the law and sin, takes me 
out of my own skin, and transfers me into Christ and His 
Kingdom, which is a kingdom of grace, righteousness, 
peace, joy, life, salvation and eternal glory. . . . Because 
He lives in me, whatever grace, righteousness, life, peace, 
salvation is in me is that of Christ Himself, and, never- 
theless, it is mine through that union (conglutinationem) 
and inherence which is by faith, and whereby Christ and 
I are made as it were one body in spirit." . . . "You are. 



246 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXII. 

so bound up with Christ, that from you and Him there is 
made but one person, which cannot be separated, but so 
perpetually adheres to Him, that you can say with con- 
fidence : 'I am Christ,' i. e., Christ's righteousness, victory, 
life, etc., are mine; and Christ, in turn, says, 'I am that 
sinner," i. e., his sins, death, etc., are mine, because he 
adheres to me, and I to him; for by faith we are joined 
into one body and one bone (Eph. 5:30). This faith 
joins Christ and me more closely than the husband is 
joined to the wife" (On Gal. 2: 20). 

5. Who gives the most prominence to this doctrine? 

"Paul lays the greatest stress on Justification ; John, 
on the Mystical Union ; Peter, on Sanctification, as a pre- 
paration for eternal life" (Kahnis). 

6. What practical application has been made of this 
doctrine? 

"Think of the majesty of these guests" (the Father and 
the Son, John 14:23), "and you will better understand 
the kindness of this coming" ("We will come unto him"). 
"Since in this life, we cannot ascend to God, so as to 
be present with Him (2 Cor. 5:8), but as long as 
this life lasts, 'we are absent from the Lord' (v. 6), God, 
of His immense kindness, descends to us, and comes to 
us, i. e., the highest majesty comes to the most abject 
vileness, heaven to earth, the Creator to the creature, the 
Lord to the servant. What love for man ! 'Lord, what is 
man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that 
thou visitest him?' (Ps. 8:4). How men are pleased 
when earthly kings and princes turn aside to visit them ! 
But what is this, compared with the coming of God ! 
Earthly kings become a burden to those whom they visit, 
because of the expense attending their entertainment ; but 
these heavenly guests come, not with empty hands, but 
with a store of priceless gifts" (Gerhard, on John 14: 23). 



Chap. XXIII. ] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 247 

7. Is the term "Mystical Union/' and its separate 
treatment in Lutheran Dogmatics entirely satisfactory? 

No. For as above stated (under 3), a polemical motive 
or necessity determined the attention which it received, 
as a distinct article. Where the historical treatment is not 
considered, it may properly find a place under Sanctifica- 
tion. Thus Schaeffer (MS. Lectures on Dogmatics), 
"The state denoted by this expression (which is liable to 
abuse and not to be unconditionally commended) can only 
be the highest point of Sanctification or identical with it. 
It must be considered as none other than the presence of 
the Holy Spirit abiding in the heart of the regenerate 
through the word of the Gospel, such presence being in- 
separable from a peculiar, gracious presence of the entire 
Trinity." 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 

i. What is Renovation or Renezval in its widest sense? 
Any change whereby .what has deteriorated is restored 
to its original strength and vigor. 

2. Hozu is the term applied to spiritual things? 

It is often used in a wider sense so as to embrace also 
Regeneration and Justification. 

2 Cor. 5:17 — "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old 
things are passed away; behold, they are become new." 

Or it may include Regeneration, but not Justification. 
Illustrations of this wider sense of the term may be found 
also in the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church. 
Wherever the word occurs, it becomes an important mat- 
ter to decide whether it be used in the wider or the stricter 
sense. 

3. What does it mean in the stricter sense? 

The renewal of character and life, wrought by the Holy 



248 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

Spirit. As such, it is synonymous with Sanctification, 
which has been well defined, as "the work of the Holy 
Trinity, by which He consecrates us in soul and body, 
filling us with virtues of every kind, and expelling vices 
of every kind, and brings to us the grace of God and 
kingdom of heaven" (Calovius). 

Eph. 4:23 — "That ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on 
the new man that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness 
of truth." Col. 3:10. Eph. 3:16-19. 1 Thess. 5:23 — "And the God of peace 
himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body, be 
preserved entire, without blame, at the coming of the Lord Jesus." 1 Cor. 
3:16 — "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of 
God dwelleth in you?" v. 17 — "For the temple of God is holy and such 
are ye." 

4. How is Renovation distinguished from Regenera- 
tion and Justification? 

Regeneration and Justification are acts of God alone ; 
Renovation, an act of God in which the regenerate con- 
cur, through powers given in the new birth. Regenera- 
tion presupposes that its subject has been, up to the act, 
entirely dead in sin ; Justification, that he is guilty, and 
needs forgiveness and believes in Christ ; Renewal, that he 
has been already regenerated and justified. Regeneration 
is directed alone to the gift of faith ; Justification, to the 
gift of imputed, and Sanctification, to that of inherent 
righteousness. Regeneration consists in the granting of 
a new life principle ; Justification, in the forgiveness of 
sins, and the bestowal of Christ's righteousness ; Renova- 
tion, in the restoration of the image of God, begun in this 
life, and completed in the life to come. Regeneration and 
Justification are instantaneous ; Renovation gradual. 

The distinction is carefully drawn by Paul in Titus 
3 : 5, "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the 
Holy Spirit" 

5. What are the two sides of Renewal? 
Both are comprised in Eph. 4 : 22, 23, 24. 

"That ye put away as concerning your former manner of life, the old 
man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit, and that ye be renewed 
in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath 
been created in righteousness and holiness of truth." 



Chap. XXIII.] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 249 

The "old man" refers to the remnants of the corrupt 
nature in all parts and powers of the regenerate man, 
darkness and perversity of intellect, disordered affections, 
emotions, appetites, the self-centered disposition of man ; 
the new man is the restored image of God. (See Chapter 
VII, 26 sqq.) 

6. What is the condition of the old man? 

He has lost the sovereignty and has received his death- 
blow (Rom. 6:6) but dies slowly, and with powerful 
struggles in which he endeavors to regain the ascendancy. 
A detailed description of this conflict is given in Rom. 7. 

7. Give a few Confessional statements? 

"But what is the old man? It is that which is born in 
us from Adam, malicious, hateful, envious, lascivious, 
avaricious, indolent, haughty, yea unbelieving, infected 
with all vices and having by nature nothing good in it. 
Whenever we are received into the kingdom of Christ, 
these things must daily decrease, that we daily become 
more gentle, more patient, more meek, and ever with- 
drawn more and more from unbelief, avarice, hatred, 
envy, haughtiness" (Large Catechism, 474). 

'They maintain a constant struggle against the old 
Adam ; for like an intractable, pugnacious, obstinate ani- 
mal, he is still a part of them, and must be coerced to the 
obedience of Christ, not only by the doctrine and threats 
of the Law, but also oftentimes by the club of punish- 
ments and troubles until the sinful flesh is entirely put off, 
and man is perfectly renewed in the resurrection, where 
he needs no longer either the preaching of the Law, or its 
threats and reproofs, as also no longer the Gospel ; as 
these belong to this mortal, imperfect life" (Formula of 
Concord, 599). 

8. How does Renezval affect the various parts of our 
nature? 

The intellect (Col. 3: 10) "Renewed unto knowledge"; 



250 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

the will, which is liberated (Rom. 8:2; Gal. 4:7; 2 Cor. 
3: 17; Rom. 6: 17), and seeks God's will as its supreme 
object ( 1 John 5:2; Gal. 5 : 24) ; the desires and affec- 
tions (Col. 3:2); all powers of body and soul (Rom. 
12:1; 6:12, 13; 1 Cor. 6:20); life in all its relations 
(1 Cor. 10: 31 ; Col. 3 : 17). 

9„ What is the active principle of Renovalion? 

Love. 1 Tim. 1 : 5 and the entire 13th chapter of First 
Corinthians, i. e., love towards God (1 John 4: 19 sq.), 
exercising itself in love to our fellow-men (1 John 4:11- 
16; John 13:14), and thus fulfilling the Law (Matt. 
22:37-40; Rom. 13:10). A very ample discussion of 
this subject is found in the "Apology," Chapter III, "Love 
and the Fulfilling of the Law," pp. 104-161. 

10. Under Question 4 it zvas stated that Renovation is 
a work of God and man co-operating. State this more 
fully, 

God not only begins but completes the work of grace 
in man ( Phil. 1 : 6 ; 1 Thess. 5 : 23 ; John 17:17; 15:4; 
Eph. 5:25, 26). While in the passages just cited, the 
work of sanctification is referred to Father and Son, it is 
referred in a peculiar sense to the Holy Spirit (2 Thess. 
2 : 13 ; 1 Peter 1:2; Rom. 15 : 16; Titus 3 : 5, etc.). 

11. Through what means is Renewal or Sanctification 
zvrought? 

Through the Word and Sacraments. The Word of the 
Law reveals the remnants of sin still inhering in the re- 
generate (Rom. 7'.y\ Gal. 5: 17), and declares the way in 
which God would have them walk (Ps. 119 : 105 ; 1 : 2; 
Heb. 8: 10). The Word of the Gospel stimulates to the 
practice of particular virtues (1 Peter 4:1; 2:21; Phil. 
2:4, 5 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 14 ; 1 Cor. 15 : 58 ; 1 John 4 : 10, 1 1 ; 
3:3). The Gospel nourishes love through which the re- 
newal progresses. 

The Sacraments are means of sealing and-individual- 



Chap. XXIII. ] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICAT10N. 25 1 

izing the general promise of the Gospel. Thus Baptism 
becomes a washing of renewal, as well as of regeneration 
(Titus 3:5), and the Lord's Supper a bond of union not 
only with Christ (John 15: 1,5), but also with our fellow 
Christians (1 Cor. 10: 17). The same is taught of Bap- 
tism in 1 Cor. 12: 12, 13 ; Eph. 4: 3-6. The remembrance 
of Baptism is an incentive to holy living (Rom. 6:4; Gal. 
3 : 2.7 \ Col. 2: II, 12; 1 Peter 3 : 21). 

12. How are these means applied? 

By His Providential dealings, God continually reminds 
us of these means, or leads us to seek in them sources of 
divine strength. The trials and afflictions of life, of them- 
selves consequences of sin, are employed to reveal to us 
our helplessness and to drive us to God for strength and 
comfort and direction. Through these experiences, long 
known and familiar truths acquire new meanings. Under 
their discipline, Christian character is deepened, or, to 
use Scripture language for the same thought, the fruits 
of the Spirit are borne (Gal. 5:22; 2 Cor. 12:7-9; Heb. 
12: it ; 1 Peter 1:6, 7). Hence "suffering for Christ" is 
called a "gift of God" (Phil. 1:29), and the Apology 
says : "Afflictions are signs to which God has added 
promises." The limitations, however, must be made that 
they profit only as they lead to the Word. To the unre- 
generate, they are punishment and signs of God's anger ; 
to the regenerate, they are chastisements inflicted in love 
(Rom. 8:1; Heb. 12: 11). 

13. What follows the appropriation of ihe Word? 
The Holy Spirit incites to prayer, and prays in and 

through the prayer of the child of God (Rom. 8:26) 
whether the prayer be expressed in words, or be only the 
earnest desire awakened by some divine promise, and 
directed towards God in humble submission to His will. 
Thus there is no wish or purpose of the regenerate that 
is independent of the promptings of the Holy Spirit 



252 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

within them (Gal. 5:22, 25; 2 Cor. 10:5; John 15:4; 
Gal. 2: 20). 

14. Has man no part to perform in Renovation? 
Yes. He co-operates through the new powers given in 

regeneration. Yet these new powers are not left to their 
independent exercise. They are stimulated and pervaded 
by the divine energy and presence. The Holy Spirit acts 
in man by influencing his will, and making man willing to 
do God's will, even filling him with delight in doing God's 
commands. Thus all man's energies respond to God's 
will, and he "works out his own salvation," while "God 
works in him to will to do" (Phil. 2: 12, 13). "By the 
grace of God" ("yet not I, but the grace of God in me," 
1 Cor. 15:10), men become "zealous of good works" 
(Titus 2:14), "purify themselves" (1 Peter 1:22), and 
"perfect holiness" (2 Cor. 7:1). 

15. In what act of man does this appear? 

In prayer, which is the beginning, middle and end of all 
man's appropriation of God's word and of the activities 
that follow (Phil. 4:6). Prayer is the voice of faith, tak- 
ing to one's self a promise of God, and claiming that, for 
Christ's sake, it be fulfilled. It pervades the entire Chris- 
tian life. 

1 Thess. 5:17 — "Pray without ceasing." 

Rom. 12:12 — "Continuing steadfastly in prayer." 

Matt. 7:7 — "Ask, seek, knock." 

It affords the energy for all the duties of that life from 
the word which it appropriates and pleads (James 5 : 13, 
16; 4: 2, last clause). 

All its efficacy is in the faith which it expresses (James 
1 : 6 ; 5 : 15 ; Heb. 11:6), but all the efficacy of faith is that 
of the word of promise which God has offered, and it has 
apprehended, and for whose fulfilment it asks. 

1 John 5:15 — "If we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we 
know that we 1 have the petitions which we have asked of him." 

John 14:13 — "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do." 16:23. 



Chap. XXIII. ] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 253 

Requests to God for objects not included directly or in- 
directly in His promises are not prayers. 

16. What, therefore, are the elements of Prayer? 

(a) The consciousness of reconciliation with God. 
How can one call upon God in faith "while one knows 
that He is terribly angry, and is oppressing us with tem- 
poral and perpetual calamities?" (Apology, 104.) 

(b) The founding of all requests upon the name of 
Christ, i. e., when we look to Christ as the only Mediator, 
through whose intercession we approach the Throne of 
Grace with confidence. (See above, 15.) 

(c) A sure word of promise. 

(d) Unhesitating confidence that such promise will be 
fulfilled. 

James i :6, 7 — "Let him ask in faith nothing doubting; for he that doubt- 
eth is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed; for let not 
that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." 

(e) Unreserved submission to the will of God, as to 
how the prayer be answered. 

(f) The pleading of the promise with God. 

It is also to be remembered that "prayer is much more 
than petition, which is only one department of it ; it is 
nothing less than the whole spiritual action of the soul 
turned towards God as its true and adequate object." It 
"is man's inmost movement towards a Higher Power." 
"Prayer is emphatically religion in action" (Liddon). 

17. Is prayer always an act? 

Like faith and love, it is also a habit, which produces 
acts. 

1 Thess. 5:17 — "Pray without ceasing." 

18. Is Renewal or SanctiUcation instantaneous? 

The struggle as described in Rom. 7 very clearly points 
to a gradual process. In Col. 1:9-11, an increase of 
spiritual gifts is prayed for those who had already ex- 
perienced a renewal (3:9, 10). So on the positive side. 



254 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

2 Cor. 4:16 — "Our inward man is renewed day by day." 3:18 — "Behold- 
ing, as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same 
image from glory to glory." 

19. Does it ever reach perfection in this life? 

No one, in this life, can reach a standard which is be- 
yond that of those who are to use the Lord's Prayer ; and 
in it, with the petition for "daily bread," we also ask for 
"the forgiveness of sins." 

1 John 1 :8 — "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and 
thi? truth is not in us." James 3:2 — "For in many things we all stumble." 
Ps. 19:12 — "Who can discern his errors; cleanse thou me from hidden 
faults." 

20. To what passages of Scripture do the advocates 
of Perfectionism appeal, and how arc they answered? 

They cite : 

a. 1 John 2:5— "Whoso keepeth his Word, in him verily hath the love of 
God been perfected." 

Our answer is that this means that the love of God is 
perfected in the degree that the Word is kept. This is the 
high ideal after which every Christian must aim, although 
it is unattainable in this world. 

b. 1 John 4:17 — "Herein is love made perfect with us." 

This is again a statement of the goal towards which 
love is directed. This goal the succeeding clause finds 
attained "in the day of judgment." The words & tout& 
reTsXeiwrat, mean literally: "In this has it reached its goal." 

c. 1 John 3:9 — "Whoso is born of God doeth no sin, because his seed 
abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God." 

Here we distinguish between the "doing" of sin con- 
sciously and deliberately, and 'the "having" of sin in the 
remnants of the old nature, and the actual sins resulting, 
over which one constantly mourns and against which he 
struggles. "So long as regeneration and the seed of God 
remain, he cannot sin. He may lose his regeneration and 
sin ; but as long as the seed of God remain in us, it does 
not admit sin. This seed is in the heart, and it keeps 
Christ in your heart, so that you do not desire to sin. If 
you see an outward object that suggests the thought, it 



Chap. XXIII.] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 255 

says : 'Brother, brother, dismiss that thought ; for you are 
born of God.' Sin allures, it grumbles, it would like to be 
master; but your will shall not be brought into subjection. 
Christ is not asleep, but is stronger than the strong man." 
(Luther), who has been quoted also as saying: "A child 
of God in this conflict receives wounds daily, but never 
throws away his arms or makes peace with his deadly foe. 
Sin is ever active, but no longer dominant ; the normal 
direction of life's energies is against sin, is an absence of 
sin, a no-will-to-sin, a no-power-to-sin." 

These passages must all be interpreted so as to harmon- 
ize with the most clear and explicit statement of I John 
1:8: 

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is 
not in us." 

21. Is there any disparagement by this of perfection 
itself. 

No. It is the standard towards which the Christian 
must constantly strive (Matt. 5:18). All that falls 
short of it, is sin. 

22. How do the advocates of Perfectionism sometimes 
define their position? 

By lowering the standard of the divine law, so as to re- 
gard it as demanding only the highest degree possible ; 
for, they urge, God does not demand impossibilities. An 
act, they concede, falls short of God's strict commands ; 
but they apologize for it upon the ground that the stand- 
ard is lowered to the level of human weakness. The 
spirituality of the law is overlooked, and the comprehen- 
siveness of the obedience (Gal. 3: 10) it requires is for- 
gotten. Man's righteousness is made to consist in a ful- 
filment of Law which an indulgent God is imagined to 
accommodate to man's weakness. 

23. What is the Relation of Good Works to Renova- 
tion ? 



256 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

They are both instrumentalities and fruits of Reno- 
vation.* 

24. What do you mean by calling them "instru- 
mentalities"? 

That the new spiritual life given in regeneration de- 
velops as it is exercised. Christian character is matured 
and strengthened as man becomes an organ through 
which the Holy Spirit works. It is a law of our nature 
that the repetition of acts which at first require much 
effort, results in a habit in which the consciousness of 
effort vanishes. They are thus said to become "a second 
nature.'' So with the various virtues and duties of the 
Christian life. Through the new powers given in regen- 
eration, the Holy Spirit co-operating, man is enabled more 
and more to bring himself under control, and devote all 
his energies to God's service. Each act of the new obedi- 
ence not only influences his future ability to bring forth 
similar fruits, but, taken together they act upon his entire 
spiritual condition. 

25. How, then, does the Holy Spirit renew men? 
Not simply by the infusion of spiritual qualities, while 

they are passive, but by dwelling within them, and, as a 
life-force, stimulating the regenerate to the exercise of all 
the gifts given them.f 

Luke 19:13 — "He gave them ten pounds and said unto them, Trade ye 
herewith till I come." 

Unemployed talents, unexercised gifts and graces are 
taken away ; talents employed and exercised are multi- 
plied (Matt. 25 : 28, 29). The possession of a truth which 
is not confessed or of endowments that are not used for 
the profit of our fellow-men, or the withholding of our 
activities from objects to which the Holy Spirit prompts, 



*Partim ut finis et effectus ad renovationem se habent, partim ad rationem 
formalem ejus spectant. — (Baier.) 

j-Per quae ad incrementum spiritualium virium tenditur. — (Baier.) 



Chap. XXIII. ] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 257 

leads to their removal, just as in the body there is an 
atrophy of the muscles, when members are long disused. 

26. What warning does Scripture give? 

Passages concerning "hardening of the heart," of which 
Heb. 3 : 7-12 is a type, refer not simply to the formal re- 
jection of the claims and comfort of the Gospel, but rather 
to the neglect of manifest duties, and the contentment 
with lower planes of Christian living, when higher ideals 
are clearly in sight. Of this, we are warned in 

1 Thess. 5:19 — "Quench not the Spirit." 

2y. Hon* are Good Works fruits cf Renovation? 

No better explanation can be given than that of the 
Apology (104 sqq.) : "Because faith brings the Holy 
Ghost and produces in our hearts a new life, it must pro- 
duce spiritual movements in hearts. This is shown in 
Jer. 31 : 33, T will put my law in their inward parts, and 
in their heart will I write it.' . . . The law cannot be 
kept without Christ ; neither can it be kept without the 
Holy Ghost ; and the Holy Ghost is received only by 
faith." "God is not loved, until we apprehend His mercy 
in Christ," and without love there are no good works, for 
they spring, as Gal. 5 : 6 declares, from "faith working 
through love" (1 Tim. 1:5). (See also Chapter XVII, 

3I-34-) 

28. Give a definition of Good Works. 

The definition of Good Works, at the time of the Refor- 
mation, ranked next only to that of "Justification" and 
"Faith." 

Every word in the following definition is significant: 
"Good Works are the free acts of justified persons, ren- 
dered according to the standard of the divine law, and 
with the light afforded by true faith in Christ, to the glory 
of God and the edification of man" (Hollaz). 

29. Explain the term "free acts." 

"Acts" denote not only external works ("actions") but 



258 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

also internal movements of the heart and will, the exercise 
of the affections, the purposes and designs of the mind. 

They are "free acts," because wrought by man's free 
or liberated will. Man's heart is in their production ; so 
that, just to the extent that renovation has progressed, he 
is unconscious of the effort involved. It has become as 
natural for him to do good works, as it is to breathe—an 
act of which he is rarely conscious unless something be 
wrong. "He does everything, so far as he is born anew, 
out of a free and cheerful spirit ; and this is called not 
properly 'a work of the law,' but 'a fruit of the Spirit/ 
or, as Paul names it, 'the law of the mind' and 'the law 
of Christ" (Formula of Concord, 598). "If the believing 
children of God would be completely renewed, they 
would, of themselves, do what they are in duty bound 
to do; just as sun, moon and all the constellations of 
heaven have their regular course according to the ar- 
rangement which God once gave them, or just as the holy 
angels render an entirely voluntary obedience" (lb., 596), 
In the General Collect of the "Common Service," we 
pray, "O God, whose service is perfect freedom," and at. 
the close of Vespers "that our hearts may be set to obey 
Thy commandments." Good Works, therefore, are free, 
not because it is a matter of indifference whether they be 
done, or because there is any absence of obligation to do 
them, but because they are free from external constraint. 
All the constraint comes from within. The new nature 
cannot do otherwise than express itself thus. (See Chap- 
ter XVII, 33.) They are necessary "because of God's 
command and our debt." See also Augsburg Confession, 
Arts. VI, XX. 

30. How has the principle here stated been paradox- 
ically expressed? 

By Luther, in one of the simplest, but yet, next to the 
Small Catechism, the greatest of his books, his "Liberty of 



Chap. XXIII. ] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 259 

a Christian Man," which is devoted to the discussion of 
two theses : "I. A Christian man is the most free lord of 
all and subject to none. II. A Christian man is the most 
dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one." "By 
faith, he rises above himself to God ; by love, he sinks be- 
low himself to his neighbor." A distinguished x\merican 
preacher (Phillips Brooks) has phrased the same thought 
thus : "The purpose and result of freedom is service. It 
sounds to us at first like a contradiction, a paradox. God 
frees our souls not from service, not from duty, but into 
service and duty. . . . The freedom of a man consists in 
the larger opportunity to be and to do all that God makes 
him capable of being and doing" (Address, "Beauty of a 
Life of Service"). 

31. But are there no Good Works before justification? 

"Civil works, i. e., the outward works of the Law can 
be done in a measure, without Christ and without the 
Holy Ghost, nevertheless those things which belong 
peculiarly to the divine Law, i. e., the affections of the 
heart toward God which are commanded in the First 
Table cannot be rendered without the Holy Ghost" (Apol- 
ogy, 105). "Man's will has some liberty for the attain- 
ment of civil righteousness, and for the choice of things 
subject to reason. Nevertheless it has no power without 
the Holy Ghost, to work the righteousness of God. . . . 
Although nature is able in some sort to do the outward 
work (for it is able to keep the hands from theft and 
murder) yet it cannot work the inward motions, such as 
the fear of God, trust in God, chastity, patience, etc." 
(Augsburg Confession, Art. XVIII). "Good works do 
not make a good man, but a good man does good works. 
Bad works do not make a bad man, but a bad man does 
bad works. As trees exist before their fruit, and as the 
fruit does not make a tree either good or bad, but, on the 
contrary, a tree of either kind produces fruit of the same 



2(3o A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

kind ; so the person of the man must be good or bad be- 
fore he can do either a good or a bad work. A bad or a 
good house does not make a bad or a good carpenter, but 
a good or a bad carpenter makes a bad or a good house" 
(Luther, on "Liberty of a Christian Man"). 

32. In saying that "Good Works are wrought accord- 
ing to the standard of the divine Law," zvhat errors are 
rejected? 

(a) That conscience is the standard. Conscience, our 
theologians say, is not a norma normans, but a norma 
normata. It is like a watch which must itself be set ac- 
cording to the sun. Conscience must constantly be 
brought to the standard of the Law, in order that its 
errors be corrected (1 Cor. 4:4). 

(b) That the Gospel is the standard. For it is the office 
of the Gospel to declare the promise of free grace. Inci- 
dentally it co-operates with the Law by affording the 
power to do good works (1 Tim. 1:5), i. e., with the 
promise the Holy Spirit is given, through whom good 
works are wrought. But even to the regenerate, the Law 
alone remains the standard. This will be treated under 
"The Third Use of the Law" (Chapter XXV, 25). 

(c) That there is any standard beyond or in addition 
to the Law. Rome teaches that beside the Law, there are 
so-called "evangelical counsels." The Law, it is taught, 
prescribes only what one is in duty bound to do ; but that 
man can earn merit by complying with certain rules 
which, nevertheless, may be omitted without sin. Works 
done according to such counsels (particularly, accord- 
ing to the vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience ) are 
called "works of supererogation." Through them, a treas- 
urv or fund of superabundant merits is formed, from 
which the Church can- draw, in order to abbreviate the 
reauired satisfaction in Purgatory. But against this is 

Luke 17:10 — "When ye shall have done all the things that are com- 
manded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which 
it was our duty to do." 



Chap. XXIII.] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 26l 

Mark 7:9-13 shows that this was the fundamental 
error of Pharisaism. Manifest duties prescribed in the 
Ten Commandments were neglected, in order to attain 
an imaginary higher holiness taught by traditions. 

Against this, the Reformers maintained that any re- 
quirement not directly or indirectly taught in the Ten 
Commandments could not be the standard of any good 
work. "Outside of the Ten Commandments, no work 
or thing can be pleasing to God, however great or pre- 
cious it be in the eyes of the world" (Large Catechism, 

435). 

33. What favorite illustration was used by the Re- 
formers? 

Luther on Genesis (Erlangen ed., Latin, 6, 132), as 
well as Melanchthon in the Apology (288), tells a story 
of St. Anthony, the Eastern monk. He dreamed of a 
shoemaker of Alexandria who was to have in the next 
world a degree of glory equal to that to be alloted him. 
With much concern, he went to Alexandria, to learn what 
remarkable life this eminent saint could be living. To his 
surprise, he found him earning a livelihood for himself 
and family by the work of his hands. Anthony found 
him, and asked : "Some things about you I want to know. 
What are you doing? What are you eating and drink- 
ing? How do you pray? When do you pray? Do you 
keep awake whole nights and devote them to prayer?" 
The answer was : "Nothing at all like this. Every morn- 
ing and night I thank God for His faithful care and pro- 
tection ; I pray for the forgiveness of all my sins through 
Christ, and earnestly beseech Him to govern me by His 
Spirit, and not permit me to fall into temptation. Then, 
I devote myself to my trade, and work for my family and 
myself. There is nothing more, except that I strive 
daily to do nothing contrary to conscience." "When 
Anthony heard this," continues Luther, "he was surprised 



262 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII- 

and learned that self-chosen rites are no worship. No 
mean garments, no coarse fare, no fasts, no long prayers, 
no vigils, nor any other works can profit with respect to 
everlasting life." 

34. Why does the definition add, "with the light af- 
forded by true faith in Christ"? 

Because of the need of spiritual illumination. (See 
Chapter XX.) The veil which obscures the full force of 
the Law must be removed. (See Formula of Concord, 

507. 59 1 -) 

35. Why does it conclude zvith the words "to the glory 
of God and the edification of men"? 

Because all free acts of justified persons, rendered ac- 
cording to the standard of the Divine Law, and with the 
light afforded by faith in Christ, have this end. "His 
works are to be done freely with the sole object of pleas- 
ing God" (Luther). (Matt. 5 : 16; 1 Cor. 10: 31 ; 14: 12; 
Rom. 1 : 14.) 

36. But can any works meet this standard? 

No works can be done with the perfection which the 
Law demands. 

Deut. 6:5 — "Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God, with all thy heart, and 
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." Gal. 5:17 — "For the flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so that ye may not do 
the things that ye would." Is. 64:6 — "All our righteousnesses are as a pol- 
luted garment." 

"Neither are they rendered with the promptness and 
alacrity that is due, but we work very sluggishly, or we 
defile them by the intervention or attendance of inordinate 
self-consciousness" (Baier). 

2,7- How then can they be called "Good Works"? 

Only relatively; and yet they are really good, because 
they are wrought by those with whom God in Christ is 
reconciled, and are the fruits of the Holy Spirit working 
in regenerate hearts. 



Chap. XXIII. ] RENOVATION OR SANCTIFICATION. 263 

38. How is this confessionally expressed? 

"They are holy, divine works, sacrifices and acts, per- 
taining to the government of Christ, who thus displays 
His kingdom to the world. . . . The dangers, labors and 
sufferings of the Apostle Paul, of Athanasius, Augustine, 
etc, are holy works, are true sacrifices acceptable to God, 
are contests of Christ, through which He repressed the 
devil. David's labors in waging wars and in the adminis- 
tration of the State, are holy works, are true sacrifices, 
are contests of God, defending the people who have the 
Word of God, in order that His knowledge may not be 
entirely extinguished on earth. We think this also con- 
cerning every good work in the humblest callings and in 
private persons. Through these works, Christ celebrates 
His victory over the devil" (Apology, 115 sq.)-. 'The 
commandments of God according to each one's calling, 
viz., that the father brought up his family, that the mother 
bore children, that the Prince governed the common- 
wealth" (Augsburg Confession, Art. XXVI). 

39. Hare Good Works rewards? 

Forgiveness of sins, salvation and eternal life are 
given gratuitously through faith on account of Christ. 
They are entirely and exclusively the rewards of Christ's 
fulfilment of the Law, and never, nor in any way, of Good 
Works. But to those who, on account of Christ, receive 
forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, rewards are of- 
ered, not of merit, but from God's free grace, to the 
awarding of which He is bound only by His promise. 

40. How has this been explained? 

"Forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, salva- 
tion and eternal life do not depend upon our merits ; but 
they are given gratuitously, because of the merit and 
obedience of the Son of God, and are received by faith. 
But in those who have been reconciled, rewards, spiritual 
and bodily, in this life and after this life are ascribed to 



264 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIII. 

Good Works, inasmuch as by faith on account of the Me- 
diator they please God; and that from the gratuitous 
divine promise, not that God is debtor, because of the per- 
fection and worth of our works, but, because of His pa- 
ternal liberality and mercy for Christ's sake, He has 
promised that the obedience of His children in this life, 
however rudimentary, languid, imperfect and impure, He 
will reward" (Chemnitz). 

41. Do the Lutheran Confessions teach such doctrine? 

Yes. "If the adversaries will concede that we are ac- 
counted righteous by faith because of Christ, and that 
Good Works please because of Christ, we will not contend 
much concerning the term, 'reward.' . . . We confess 
what we have often testified that although justification 
and eternal life pertain to faith, nevertheless Good Works 
merit other bodily and spiritual rewards, and degrees of 
rewards, according to 1 Cor. 3 : 8, 'Every man shall re- 
ceive his own reward according to his own labor.' . . . 
Because men are accepted on account of faith, for this 
very reason, the inchoate fulfilling of the law pleases, and 
has a reward in this world and the next" (Apology, 

x 53 sqq.). 

42. But does not the Apology go too far in saying 
that they ''merit" these rewards? 

The connection shows the sense in which it is used, 
and that it is not "a reward of debt," but "of grace" 
(Rom. 4:4), that is meant. To avoid all misunderstand- 
ing, it is better to say as above (Q. 37), that "rewards are 
offered, not of merit, but of God's free grace." 

43. Give some Scripture proofs. 

We may begin with the Fourth Commandment ; then 
also 

1 Tim. 4:8' — "Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the 
life which now is and that which is to come." 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 265 

Luke 14:14 — "Thou shalt be recompensed in the resurrection of the just." 
Gal. 6:9 — "In due season, we shall reap, if we faint not." Deut. 28:1-14. 

Scripture is full of such promises. 

44. But is there not a difference of rewards? 

"There will be different rewards, according to differ- 
ent labors. But the remission of sins is equal and alike 
to all" (Apology, 116). The rewards of the justified are 
secundum opera, not propter opera. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 

1. In the treatment of the various acts of the Applying 
Grace of the Holy Spirit, what has been a most prominent 
feature of them all? 

The fact that they are wrought through means. (See 
Chapter XIX, The Call, 2, 6, 7, 8, 14 ; Chapter XX, Illum- 
ination, 11, 12, 14; Chapter XXI, Regeneration, 10-12, 
38; Chapter XXII, Renewal, 11-14.) The confessional 
statements are found in Augsburg Confession, Art. V, 
28: 10; Apology, 170:36; 215: 13; Schmalkald Articles, 
33 2: 3; 333 : IO ; Large Catechism, 444:42; Formula of 
Concord, 497: 4; 552:4; 555:16; 561:48; 562:50; 
662 : 76 ; 669 : 30. 

2. Is it not a limitation of God's sovereignty and 
power to affirm that these acts are accomplished only 
through means? 

Theology does not deal with divine possibilities, but 
with what God has revealed concerning Himself and His 
various forms of activity. Not only have we no promise 
of His intervention otherwise, but He constantly turns 
us away from any expectation of such aid to the simple 
means, in' and through which He promises to be always 
found with His entire efficacy. 



266 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

3. But in extraordinary cases, does He not dispense 
with means? 

Even there, means are employed ; but in an extraor- 
dinary way. At Pentecost the multitudes were converted 
through the Word, although this Word was given under 
extraordinary conditions and circumstances, just as the 
multitudes in the wilderness were sustained not without 
bread, but with bread furnished in an extraordinary 
manner. 

4. Are not these means variously designated? 
Sometimes Word and Sacraments are said to be these 

means ; as in Augsburg Confession, Art. V : "Through the 
Word and Sacraments, as through instruments, the Holy 
Ghost is given." At other times, the Word alone is men- 
tioned, as in the Schmalkald Articles, 332 : 3 : "God grants 
His Spirit and grace to no one, except through or with the 
preceding outward Word/' At still other times, it is "the 
preaching of the Word" (Formula of Concord, 566: 71), 
or "the daily reading of the Word" (lb. 555: 16), that is 
mentioned. This diversity appears equally in Holy Scrip- 
ture. Thus in 1 Peter 1 : 23, the new birth is ascribed to 
the Holy Spirit working through the Word, while in 
John 3 : 5 it is referred to His work through baptism. 

5. How are these statements harmonized? 

By regarding the Word as the only proper Means of 
Grace, and recognizing it as coming to men in two dif- 
ferent forms. Sometimes it reaches us, without any ex- 
ternal rite or ceremony, as when preached or read (Rom. 
10:8); sometimes, accompanied by a divinely ordained 
ceremony, in the Sacraments (Eph. 5:26). This deter- 
mines the distinction between the Audible and the Visible 
Word. 

6. But what is the Word? 

In its widest sense, it is the enure revelation which God 
has made of Himself for man's sa/vation. In its stricter 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 267 

sense, it is the assurance of the grace of God in Christ, 
preceded by the assertion of God's claims and the revela- 
tion of man's sin and need, and followed by knowledge 
imparted for the support, comfort, defence and growth of 
faith unto life everlasting. 

Rom. 10:8, 9 — "The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart; 
that is the word of faith which we preach, that it thou shalt confess with 
thy mouth, Jesus as Lord, and shall believe in thy heart that Uod raised 
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 

: 'The soul can do without everything except the Word 
of God. . . . But you will ask : 'What is this Word, and 
by what means is it to be used, since there are so many 
words of God?' I answer that the Apostle Paul explains 
what it is, namely the Gospel of God concerning His Son, 
incarnate, suffering, risen, glorified" (Luther, Liberty of 
a Christian Man). 

7. Where is it to be found? 

In the Holy Scriptures, as an inspired and inerrant 
record of revelation, and in all preaching and teaching, 
that accords with them as a standard (see Chapter I, 35). 

8. In what senses are the Holy Scriptures inspired? 
(a) Through the activity of the Holy Spirit in and 

through the writers, when they were written. Scripture 
"is inspired for it comes from God ; it is human for it 
comes through man. But remember we do not say that 
the human is without the divine. The Spirit is incarnate 
in the Word, as the Son was incarnate in Christ. There 
is deep significance in the fact that the title of 'the Word' 
is given both to Christ, the Revealer, and to the Bible, the 
revelation of God, so that in some passages great critics 
differ as to which is meant. As Christ without confusion 
of natures, is truly human as well as divine, so is this 
Word. As the human in Christ though distinct from the 
divine was never separate from it, and His human acts 
were never those of a merely human being, His toils, His 
merits and His blood were those of God, so is the written 



268 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

Word, though most human of books, as Christ, the Son 
of Man, was most human of men, truly divine. Its hu- 
manities are no accidents ; they are divinely planned. It 
is essential to God's conception of this Book that it shall 
be written by these men and in this way. He created, 
reared, made and chose these men and inspired them to 
do this thing in their way, because their way was His 
way" (Krauth, "The Bible a Perfect Book"). The form 
of each particular book and statement was determined in 
part by the freedom and the circumstances of each writer ; 
but back of the human composers was the divine Author 
who knows how to turn every element of the writer's free- 
dom and limitations into account for his purposes, just as 
in Providence, not a sparrow falls without its significance 
in God's world-plan. "They were moved not by be- 
ing deprived of their own mind (like the 'enthusiasm' 
the heathen imagined in their prophets), but because they 
attempted nothing of themselves, but only followed the 
Spirit obediently as their guide" (Calvin, on I Peter 
i : 20). 

(b) Through the activity of the Holy Spirit in pre- 
serving and gathering the Scriptures into one volume, in 
which one part is adjusted to another, so that the contri- 
bution of each writer finds its place in one organism. They 
are no mere library of books that have been accidentally 
collected, but they form one inwardly united whole, in 
which they mutually interpret each other. "How marvel- 
ous is the harmony between the beginning and the end of 
Holy Scripture, from the creation of the heavens and the 
earth, to the new heaven and the new earth of the world to 
come ! And the entire course from that beginning to that 
end is a great, progressive and connected whole. Not- 
withstanding the different ages in which they were writ- 
ten, the diverse relations and circumstances, the varieties 
in station and culture of their writers, one thought per- 
vades all, from beginning to end there is but one purpose" 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 269 

(Luthardt, "Glaubenslehre"). Tota Scriptara sacra, 
units liber dicitur, quia uno Spirita scripta est (Jerome, on 
Is. 29). 'They who wrote the several parts often knew 
nothing of each other; they knew nothing of that whole 
for which they were laboring. Neither accident nor hu- 
man intention brought this to pass, but a higher Spirit. 
Scripture is a wonderful structure — a structure for which 
there must have been an architect. It is the ruling mind 
that knows how to utilize and combine individual efforts" 
(Luthardt, "Saving Truths of Christianity," 211 sqq.). 
"Not only are the various writings, when considered sep- 
aratelv worthy of God, but thev together exhibit one com- 
plete and harmonious body, unimpaired by excess or de- 
fects'' (Bengel). "Why take many lutes and pipes, unless 
revelation were designed to be symphony as well as mel- 
ody, whose unity should not be that of the simple strain, 
but that by which the Great Composer pours His own 
divine spirit of music into many parts, whilst wind and 
touch on instruments faithful to their own nature, unite 
in 'Creation' or 'Messiah,' to form what is at once truly 
theirs, and, because such, truly His?" (Krauth). 

If, then, no part or passage of Holy Scripture can be 
properly understood, except when examined in the light 
shed upon it by all other parts, and regarded in its peculiar 
place in the entire canon, and if the collection of this canon 
was a gradual process continuing throughout centuries, 
the activity of the Holy Spirit which we call "inspiration" 
was not confined to the mere act of the composition of 
each book separately. 

(c) This leads us to a further statement as to this pro- 
cess. The result attained was through the presence of the 
Holy Spirit in the communion of believers or Christian 
Church in its proper sense. The promise is : "The Word 
of the Lord abideth forever" (1 Peter 1:25). But the 
way in which God accomplishes this, is by the establish- 



27O A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

merit of an organism, which accepts and perpetuates this 
word, and works through it. It is in this sense that the 
Church is called "the pillar and ground of the truth" 
(1 Tim. 3: 15). Here we must constantly turn from the 
superficial view of the Church as an external body, with 
legislative functions and traditional authority, to the 
Church as the united number of those who, being true 
believers, constitute the one body of Christ, "the circle of 
humanity within which God inwardly dwells," and "the 
true beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth" 
(Kahler). 

Its members, individually and collectively have the 
promise that Christ will ever be with them (Matt. 18: 20; 
28 : 20), and that the Holy Spirit will also abide with them, 
and lead them into all truth (John 14:26; 15:26, 27 ; 
16: 13). This presence of the Holy Spirit imparts a new 
faculty to every one who receives Him (1 Cor. 2: 14, 15). 
The Spirit in the heart of each believer and the Spirit in 
Holy Scripture correspond and harmonize (Rom. 8: 16). 
Endowed with this new spiritual sense, they accurately 
discriminate between that which comes and does not come 
from God, for Christ says (John 10:4, 5), 'The sheep 
follow him ; for they know his voice ; and a stranger will 
they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers." 
As Luther says on John 7 : 14, "A Christian soon scents 
out from afar where God's Word is or where human doc- 
trine, which one speaks of himself, is" (Erlangen ed., 
48:144). 

The Divine Architect, therefore, of the wonderful struc- 
ture of Holy Scripture, described under (b), has brought 
it together, part by part, and maintained it, not by the de- 
cree of any councils, whether of Laodicea or any other, or 
the resolution of any synods or the decisions of any theo- 
logians, or even by a long line of external witnesses, but 
by His work, as "Author and Architect in the hearts of 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 2JI 

the godly," as Flacius* terms it. He "turns man's heart 
whithersoever he will" (Prov. 21: 1). 

The gradual formation of the canon of Scripture and 
its separation as something distinct from other books is, 
thus, the product of a true inspiration pervading the com- 
munity of believers as a whole unto the end of time. 

Such inspiration is not the enthusiasm of ultra Mystic- 
ism, condemned in Art. V of the Augsburg Confession, 
but is the result of the work of the Holy Spirit through 
the Word, previously received and laid to heart and as- 
similated and acting within individual men. Spirit and 
Word, or Word and Spirit are never separated. But the 
elementary stages in their joint work are the basis for 
their gifts in ampler measure. Through the impulse, 
therefore, of the Holy Spirit, working by the Word, first 
in the individual believer, and then uniting all in manifold 
testimonies conspiring to one end, there is a concurrence 
of numberless factors to results far above the intentional 
effort of any one when he wrote. In time, false and 
spurious books are lost or lose their assumed authority, 
because the religious life of believers has no use for them, 
while others, from generation to generation, stand the 
test, not of mere scholarly research — a subordinate fac- 
tor — but of religious value to souls illumined by God's 
Spirit, viz., of the true Church. This has been well stated 
by Claus Harms in the fifth of his "Sermons on the Bible" 
(Kiel, 1842) : "Believing men endowed with the spirit of 
investigation and discrimination, and externally as well as 
internally called to the work have made their decision ; 
they have rejected and they have accepted. What they have 
recognized and received as the pure Word of God, they 
have brought together and transmitted to the congrega- 
tion of believers for reading. Thus both the Old and the 
New Testament, each, became a book, not blown together 
by the wind, but constructed by the Spirit, who, being 



f Tractatus vii:6s8; 1:63. 



2J2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

invoked, and acting upon believing men, has made out of 
no less than eighty separate writings one writing. It is 
in this sense, we say that the Bible has been brought us 
by the Church." 

(d) Through the activity of the Holy Spirit in the 
divine truth which they contain, or which has been drawn 
directly or indirectly from these "pure fountains of Is- 
rael." For this truth is so independent of the precise form 
in which it was first presented, that, when expressed in 
other words, it is no less inspired than before. The manner 
in which Old Testament passages are quoted in the New 
will illustrate this. The New Testament writers, under 
the guidance of inspiration often rise above the letter of 
an Old Testament text, so as to penetrate its very heart 
and catch its spirit, rather than to be bound to a merely 
mechanical repetition of its very words. For although 
every word be prized, yet after all, as Flacius remarks, 
words are, "signa tantum et umbrae" and valuable only 
as they stand for "res," i. e., realities (Tractatus V, 480). 

(e) Through the personality of Christ, in the Word, 
as this is brought into closest contact with the reader. 
The heart of Holy Scripture is revealed truth, i. e., those 
truths which man cannot learn by his natural powers, and 
the heart of all revealed truth is Jesus Christ. 

John 20:31 — "These are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye may have life in his name." 
— Cf. John 5:39. 

Luther paraphrases John 5 : 39 : "See that ye so study 
the Scriptures as to seek and find me in them. He who 
reads them so as to find me in them is the true master of 
Scripture, the dust is away from his eyes, and he will cer- 
tainly find in them eternal life. But whosoever does not find 
me there, he has not studied or understood them aright, 
and does not have eternal life. Even though he were to 
read them a thousand times, and were to continually turn 
their pages, all would be to no purpose" (Erlangen ed., 
19:92). So also in the well-known comment on the 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 273 

Epistle of James : "The true touchstone by which to test 
all books is to notice whether or not they are occupied 
with Christ, since all Scripture testifies of Christ (Rom. 
3 : 21), and St. Paul wants to know of nothing but Christ 
(1 Cor. 2:2). What does not teach Christ is not apostol- 
ical, even though St. Peter or Paul teach it. On the other 
hand, whatever preaches Christ is truly apostolical, even 
though this be done by Judas, Annas, Pilate or Herod" 
(lb. 63:157). 

'The Christian does not have faith in Christ because he 
believes that Scripture is divinely inspired, but he believes 
that Scripture is divinely inspired, because through the 
truth revealed in it, he has attained to faith in Christ" 
(Th. Harnack, "Canon and Inspiration," p. 351). 

It is according to this standard that the Protestant 
Churches reject the Apocrypha ; for these books bear no 
testimony concerning Christ, and Christ bears no testi- 
mony concerning them. 

(f ) Through the activity of the Holy Spirit with and in 
all who read or hear the Word today. It is a never failing 
fountain of divine life and energy (Heb. 4: 12). Viva 
dei voluntas Spiritus Sanctus est (Melanchthon, "Loci 
Communes"). Life means activity (see Chapter II, 46). 
"Scripture was divinely inspired not only while it was 
being written, God breathing through the writers, but 
also while it is being read, God breathing through the 
Scriptures, and the Scriptures breathing Him" (Bengel). 
It is not simply a store-house of information concerning 
God ; it is the revelation of God Himself. It is not simply 
a series of declarations as to how God spoke of old ; in it 
God still speaks. We read not simply of the way, but we 
find there the very life of God Himself. The great Au- 
thor of Holy Scripture remained in and with it, when the 
writers through whom He wrote laid down their pens 
and departed from this world, some of them not under- 
standing as well as others who were to follow them 



274 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

(i Peter 1:11), the subjects which they treated and, 
therefore, their own statements. He whose real message 
it is, sees that it reaches the end for which He prepared it, 
and attends it with His illuminating and regenerating 
power. It is inspired because through it there is the direct 
touch of God upon man's soul. 

9. What, then, is ihe supreme test of the claims of 
Scripture, or of any portion or book of Scripture? 

Not literary-historical criticism, but the religious use 
of Scripture, i. e., its office and fruits as a Means of Grace. 
For if literary-historical criticism were the supreme test, 
then only the limited few who would have access to his- 
torical sources and would have the requisite literary train- 
ing, could be judges. In view of constant progress in the 
collection of new sources of information and the adoption 
of improved scientific methods, each generation succes- 
sively would discredit the results of those before it. The 
criticism of the beginning of the Twentieth Century will 
be an anachronism before the next century opens. But 
the test is to be made by the humblest of men. The Word 
of God and its inerrant record are not simply for the aris- 
tocracy of science but are intended for all. "Erudition 
has never had the key to the Kingdom of Heaven" (Tisch- 
endorf). Scholar and peasant, the most cultivated and 
the most illiterate, meet here on an even footing. It is 
a radical error to elevate men who have no higher than lin- 
guistic attainments to the chair of judges in regard to the 
real meaning and purpose of Scripture. As unquestioned 
attainments in the study of the English language and liter- 
ature do not qualify one to be a critic and interpreter of 
Blackstone's Commentaries or of a treatise on physics or 
mathematics, or scientific music written in English ; as 
even more than ability to read and write English with 
facility is necessary in order to interpret the masterpieces 
of English prose and poetry ; so one may know Hebrew 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 275 

like the Rabbis of old, or Greek like the philosophers who 
heard Paul on the Areopagus, without being a competent 
judge concerning the Old or the New Testament. Three 
qualifications are required of every competent translator, 
viz., knowledge of the language from which he translates, 
knowledge of the language into which he translates, and 
familiarity with the subject that is treated. The most 
advanced authority in Semitic or Aryan philology can 
not assume to be a very successful interpreter of such 
treatises, deciphered from those languages as are of a 
technical character. The jurist will have to aid him in 
regard to legal transactions, and modern medical science 
in regard to the primitive beginnings of its branches found 
in the documents which he indeed must translate. As soon 
as he passes beyond the limits of his own calling as a phil- 
ologist, he loses his standing as a scholar. Nowhere is 
the classical rule, Ne sutor supra crepidam more pertinent 
than in Biblical Criticism. 

10. But how is this religious test effective? 

By the presence of the Holy Spirit, Scripture is self- 
evidencing. 

"No human reason, no illumination beyond and above 
the Word, no Council, no Pope, but only the Word is the 
legitimate interpreter of the Word itself. If you ask the 
proof, the question must be declined ; for the truth, suf- 
ficiency and clearness of God's Word need no proof. This 
is an axiom, a fundamental principle. The truth of every 
statement must be proved from the Word, but the Word 
itself derives its truth from no higher principle. That 
this assertion as an axiom needs no further proof comes 
from the fact that the Word of God is no mere Word, but 
because it is spirit and life. . . . That the Word is self- 
evidencing is equivalent to saying that the Spirit of God, 
of Whom the Word is the bearer, shows the truth of the 
Word to man's spirit. No one, therefore, is a competent 



276 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV 

judge of the divine origin, truth, clearness and sufficiency 
of the Word, unless he have experienced its enlightening 
and quickening power"* (Philippi, "Symbolics," p. 327). 
"Scripture is its own light" (Luther, Er. ed., 15:422). 

The testimony of the Spirit is superior to all 
reason. For as God alone is a sufficient witness in His 
own Word, so also the Word will never gain credit in 
the hearts of men, until it be confirmed by the internal 
testimony of the Spirit. It is necessary, therefore, that 
the same Spirit, who spake by the mouths of the prophets, 
should penetrate into our hearts, to convince us that they 
faithfully delivered the oracles which were committed to 
them. . . . It is an undeniable truth, that they who have 
been inwardly taught by the Spirit, are in entire acqui- 
escence with Scripture, and that it is self-authenticated, 
carrying with it its own evidence, and ought not to be 
made the subject of demonstration and arguments from 
reason. . . . For the truth is vindicated from every 
doubt, when unassisted by foreign aid, it is sufficient for 
its own support. But that this is the peculiar property 
of Scripture, appears from the insufficiency of any hu- 
man compositions to make an equal impression on our 
hearts" (Calvin, "Institutes," I, Chapters VII, VIII). 

To those who ask for the proof of its source, its one 
answer, therefore, is : "Come and read," and as they read, 
with minds intent on the truth, the Holy Spirit interprets 



*"Every theoretical proof which may be attempted, every logical demon- 
stration of truth, yea even the practical appeal to experience is vain, with- 
out the presupposition of a receptive organ, of a developed sensorium for 
the particular sphere of life that is concerned. Who can explain to the 
blind or even to the aesthetically unreceptive the true beauty of a painting, 
or bring to scienti^c understanding the aesthetical principles which here 
prevail? Who can disclose to the deaf or even to those without musical 
talent the deep mysteries of the great musical master-pieces? Who is in a 
condition to convince materialistic stupidity which regards only that which 
is comprehensible and sensually perceptible as true, of the overwhelming 
power of the, architecture of the world? The worlds of Nature and ot 
Spirit, their reciprocally conditioning and connecting laws remain dead and 
unintelligible, where our sense is dead." Van Oettingen i:8. 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 277 

and confirms Scripture as Christ to the disciples at Em- 
mans (Luke 24:27). It is not pure literature like the 
poems of Homer or history of Thucydides. It makes a 
personal appeal to the heart of every reader. It deals not 
with absolute issues, but with those of each generation, 
that successively comes under its influence, and of everv 
order of men, from the slave to the monarch. Its scope is 
not only as universal as human history, but it enters into 
every imaginable form and relation of man's experience. 

Heb. 4:12 — "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than 
any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing ot soul and spirit, 
of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents 
of the heart." 

11. Illustrate this. 

The pastor of Zion's and St. Michael's congregation, 
Philadelphia (1779-1822) was an accomplished Hebrew 
scholar and Professor in the University of Pennsylvania. 
But when in 1793, within a few weeks he lost over six 
hundred of his people from yellow fever, when whole 
days were spent in the graveyard with one funeral crowd- 
ing upon another, and while he hastened hither and 
thither to prepare the dying for death and to console the 
afflicted, and, like Moses in Num. 16 : 48, daily conducted 
a brief service in his church for those still well, but among 
whom the destroying angel from night to night was to 
find more victims, he learned more of the reality and 
efficacy of God's Word, than a hundred life-times of 
scholarly research could have ever afforded. It is in the 
close practical application of the Gospel to the deepest 
wants of men, and particularly in hours of greatest trial, 
that such evidence is afforded as sweeps away all doubts.* 



*Only two days before his death, Luther wrote at Eisleben : 

"1. Virgilium in Bucolicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit quinque 

annis pastor. Virgilium in Georgicis nemo potest intelligere, nisi fuerit 

quinque annis agricola. 

2. Ciceronem in epistolis (sic praecipio) nemo integre intelligit, nisi 
viginti annis sit versatus in republica aliqua insigni. 

3. Scripturas sacras sciat se nemo degustasse satis, nisi centum annis 
cum Prophetis, ut Elia et Elisaeo, Joanne Baptista, Christo et Apostolis 
ecclesias gubernarit." 



278 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV 

The Book of Psalms, for example, exists not simply as a 
collection of hymns for the worship of Jews in olden 
times, but each psalm, and even each verse, has a wonder- 
ful history under the Christian dispensation, entering into 
the deepest experiences and the most hidden struggles and 
victories of the godly in all ages of the Church. What a 
history of the Twenty-third Psalm, for example, could be 
compiled from God's Book of Remembrance, if He were 
to place what it contains on this subject within man's 
reach ! What an experience in Christian life and thought 
would the Gospel of John afford, to one who would be 
permitted to read the record of only a small portion of its 
use in the centuries that have followed its composition ! 
How can the Fourth Gospel be separated from Christi- 
anity, or Christianity be separated from the Fourth Gos- 
pel, as some modern advocates of a reconstruction of 
Christianity propose? If but one verse, John 3: 16, were 
to be torn from us, it would be as though one of the 
brightest planets had disappeared from our heaven. 

12. But is it possible for this test to be applied by any 
individual or by any age of the Church io all the details 
or even all the books of Holy Scripture? 

No. But just as we confide in one whom we have re- 
peatedly found faithful, and implicitly believe that his 
words are true and his character spotless, because of what 
he has shown himself to be in cases where the test has 
been before our eyes, so our experience with the Word of 
God and with its record in many places, is the ground of 
confidence of its truth and power in all places. The most 
advanced student of the Scriptures has grasped, after all, 
only a small portion of its contents. The Church, like the 
individual Christian progresses, from age to age, in its 
apprehension and confession of what they contain, but 
never will exhaust their resources. "For such is the depth 
of the Christian Scriptures, that even if I were to attempt 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 279 

to study them and nothing else from early boyhood to 
decrepit old age, with the utmost leisure, the most un- 
wearied zeal, and talents greater than I have, I would be 
still daily making progress in discovering their treasures ; 
not that there is so great difficulty in coming through them 
to know the things necessary for salvation, but when any 
one has accepted these truths, with the faith that is in- 
dispensable for a life of piety and uprightness, so many 
things which are veiled under manifold shadows of mys- 
tery remain to be inquired into by those who are advanc- 
ing in the study, and so great is the depth of wisdom not 
only in the words in which these have been expressed, but 
also in the things themselves, that the experience of the 
oldest, the ablest and the most zealous students of Scrip- 
tures, illustrates what Scripture itself has said : 'When a 
mafi hath done, then hath he just begun' (Augustine, 
Letter CXXXVII, "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," 
I, 474). 'The painter, by the most delicate stroke of his 
brush ; the musician, by the swiftest touch of fleeting 
notes, exercises the highest skill of his art. In everything 
that is highly finished, it is the most minute details that 
escape rude ears and eyes, which yet bestow the most 
exquisite and profound delight. Such is the case with 
Holy Scripture" (Bengel). 

"Whilst everything in the Scriptures is for man, it does 
not follow that every part is equally valuable to every 
man. The Bible is framed with reference to the average 
want of a whole race. Everything in it is there for some- 
body, although it may not be specially meant for you. 
And yet the parts, which seem to the individual, least 
adapted to his wants, may have even for him a priceless 
value ; they may inspire him with a sense of new necessi- 
ties, may enlarge his mind and heart, and lead him out of 
himself into a wider sphere" (Krauth, lit supra). 

13. Is no weight whatever, therefore, to be attached 
to literary-historical criticism? 



280 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

It has a very important place, when subordinated to the 
religious use of Scripture. The former deals exclusively 
with the merely human; the latter, chiefly, although not 
exclusively, with the divine side of Scripture. The for- 
mer may serve, at times and within certain limits, as a 
corrective of wrong inferences of the religious use of 
Scripture and what it implies. The main function of 
such criticism is to show the progressive character of 
revelation, and to mark the different stages through 
which the faithful passed until they received the full rev- 
elation of God in Christ, and the complete record of that 
revelation in the New Testament Scriptures. 

14. Distinguish further betzveen the religions use of 
literary-historical criticism and literary-historical criticism 
separated from religious criticism. 

This is well stated by Auberlen : "Such criticism is pos- 
sible only when one, by the operation of the Spirit, has 
been brought into inward unison with the mind and es- 
sence of revelation — with the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 
2:15, 16). From such a position the single books of 
Scripture are estimated, and a different value ascribed to 
them acording as they are occupied with Christ, i. e., as 
they stand in closer or remoter connection with the central 
point of the Gospel. Thus the Old Testament is less 
central than the New, the Book of Esther than Genesis, 
Ecclesiastes than Isaiah, the Epistle of James than 
that of Romans, though to all of these is given their essen- 
tial place and signification in the entire Bible. It is quite 
common for the devout mind, in the practical use of the 
Scriptures, for edification, to make such distinctions, 
though it is often done unconsciously ;* and no one has 
been bolder in this respect than he to whom we are ac- 



*As an illustration, reference may be made to the constant demands 
for "The New Testament and Psalms" in a separate volume. The soul in 
its deepest sorrows seeks consolation not from Chronicles or Proverbs, but 
from the Gospels or the Epistles. 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 28 1 

customed to look as one of the most spiritual men since 
the days of the apostles, Luther. His well-known opin- 
ions concerning the Epistle of James and other biblical 
books are not indeed to be followed, and they admonish 
us to care and humility in this matter. But if Scripture is 
now so often and so rightly called an organism, it must 
also have its more and less honorable members." Thus 
"a principal point of view is furnished for the unbiased 
historical study of the Bible ; and this by no means tends 
to lower the Word of God, but rather serves to open up 
and unfold its manifold wealth, and to reveal the wisdom 
of God in educating men by providing for their most 
varied wants and for the different stages of their progress. 
The clearest example of this is the Gospels, rising up in 
an ascending line from Mark to John. This kind of dog- 
matic criticism, viz., the spiritual, is wide as the heavens 
from the unspiritual criticism of a rationalistic dogma- 
tism" ( "Divine Revelation," Engl. Transl., 269 sq.), 

15. Is there such criticism in the New Testament 
Scriptures themselves? 

Yes. The Epistle to the Hebrews combines literary-his- 
torical with religious criticism ; and by its reverent treat- 
ment of the Old Testament, furnishes a model for critics 
of all succeeding ages. 

16. What principle should always be remembered in 
such studies? 

That of the powerlessness and perversity of all schol- 
arly attainments when not thoroughly pervaded by the 
illumining influences of the Holy Spirit. Recall what the 
Formula of Concord has declared concerning "even the 
most able and learned men on earth" (Chapter XX, 2). 

17. But are not some of the most conservative defend- 
ers of traditional theories of inspiration also open to 
criticism? 

Yes, when they ignore or endeavor to conceal the hu- 



282 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

man element in Scripture (see above, 8 a) or, what is the 
same, raise the human factor to an equality with the di- 
vine, as when it is claimed that the Hebrew vowel points 
are inspired, or, to quote again Dr. Krauth, when "it was 
thought to border on the sin against the Holy Ghost to 
intimate that the Greek, in which He inspired Matthew 
to write was not as pure at that of Plato. These were 
monstrous suppositions, at war with facts, totally un- 
called for by any interest of the cause, they were destined 
to sustain, and rejected, even when they were most preva- 
lent, by many of the profoundest minds and most pious 
hearts in all ages of the Church. Such a view contradicts 
every page of the Bible, a day's perusal of which suggests 
more difficulties against the theory than any ingenuity 
would be able to solve in a thousand years. This view, 
however, mars the Bible and stultifies its very plan. It 
makes a question of life and death out of matters, that 
have no more connection with the life of revelation, than 
has the spelling of a word, with the grandeur of 'Paradise 
Lost' " (ut supra). 

18. Would you say then that some things in Scripture 
are unimportant, and may be readily surrendered? 

By no means. Even the accidents of Scripture, if we 
may so speak, are important in their own place. In sacris 
Scripturis nil est supervacuum (Chrysostom). But "the 
mind of the Spirit" can be learned no more from detached 
and isolated passages, than a house can be judged from a 
single slate or shingle, or a flower from one petal or sta- 
men, or an opera from a single bar of music. Detach a 
few letters from a sentence, and what is their value? That 
Erastus was treasurer of Corinth, that Paul left his cloak 
at Troas, that Manasseh was twelve years old when he 
began to reign, that Ehud begat Eleazar, are incidents 
that have no meaning whatever, except as details helping 
to make up the background, in the light of which the his- 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 283 

torical events pertaining to the center of the Gospel are 
unfolded. To raise them to a central place is not to hon- 
or, but to dishonor and misinterpret Holy Scripture. 
Luthardt, in his "Glaubenslehre," goes so far as to show 
that even the silence of Scripture is inspired. For it is 
just this silence of the Old Testament concerning Mel- 
chizedek, that is used in the Epistle to the Hebrews in 
showing how he is a type of Christ. 

The very variations and divergences in narrating the 
same event only show how the Holy Spirit, through no 
want of foresight, preserved the truly human framework 
of the record with all its limitations, while filling it with 
His own divine power as to the central facts presented. 
Augustine was right when he found a design in even the 
obscurities of Holy Scripture. "This obscurity is bene- 
ficial, whether the sense of the author is at last reached 
after the discussion of many other interpretations, or 
whether though that sense remain concealed, other truths 
are brought out by the discussion of the obscurity" (De 
Civitate Dei, XX, 19). 

19. Upon what principle of interpretation has the 
Lutheran Church, therefore, always insisted ? 

That no passage dare be regarded by itself, and that, as 
Scripture forms a consistent whole, there is "an analogy 
of faith," which is the center and rule of the rest. Each 
verse and each word has its place ; but what this is the 
"analogy of faith" must decide. See Chapter I, 22-26. 

20. In view of all that has been thus far presented in 
this chapter, would you say "The Bible is the Word of 
God," or "The Bible contains the Word of God"? 

This question is already answered in 8 b. and 18. The 
various records of the various revelations of God (Heb. 
1:1) are combined in one record and one revelation. The 
whole must be interpreted in the light of each part, and 
each part must be interpreted in the light of the whole. 



284 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

In this sense we can say : 'The Bible is the Word 
of God." 

The expression, "The Bible contains the Word of God'* 
is capable of a true, and of some very erroneous interpre- 
tations. It may mean that with much chaff there is some 
wheat, and with much dross there is some gold, and that 
when the human element is carefully separated from the 
divine, we have at last the pure Word of God. In this 
sense, it is clear that it cannot be accepted. Every note 
of the sublime strain, every stroke of the painter's brush, 
is needed for the full effect. Even the delicate touch in 
the description in Mark 6 : 39, that the grass on which the 
multitude received their meal was "green'' is not needless. 
The divine element is active in and through everything in 
Scripture that is human. 

It may be interpreted also as meaning that the Bible is 
a vessel full of the water of life, and that every drop that 
is drawn from it is equally valuable. Some good people 
open their Bibles at random, and hope to find divine guid- 
ance in the first text on which their eyes light, without 
considering the place the text has in the entire argument 
of divine revelation. Some preachers, in the selection and 
treatment of a text, pay no regard to the context or argu- 
ment in which it stands, or its relations to the central doc- 
trine of the Gospel. The letters in a word, the words in 
a sentence, the sentences in a paragraph, the paragraph or 
chapter in a book, the book in a "testament," and even the 
testament as a whole needs the whole Bible to interpret it. 

But there is a true sense in which we say not only that 
"the Bible is," but that "the Bible contains the Word of 
God." This occurs when each part, even the most insig- 
nificant and seemingly trifling, even the discrepancies be- 
tween various human inspired writers, and all that per- 
tains to the limitations of their nature and environment 
and age and language, are regarded as bearing on the one 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 285 

great end and one great theme of revelation and its clear 
and inerrant record. 

It occurs also where God speaks in Scripture not only 
in an entire argument, or in recounting human history, 
but in clear and direct briefer statements, as in the Ten 
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Sermon on the 
Mount, the institution of the Sacraments, the parting dis- 
course to the disciples, the Sacerdotal Prayer, the Gospel 
history in general and in detail, the sermons of the 
Apostles in Acts, the treatment of the great theme of faith 
in the Epistles of Paul, and of love in those of John, and 
of hope in those of Peter. Here we find the very center 
and key by which all else is explained. To speak with 
greatest accuracy, we may say : The Holy Scriptures are 
a highly organized and divinely prepared instrumentality 
for communicating the Word of God to men. As the 
body, the organ of the soul, has its heart and lungs and 
head, so Holy Scripture, as the organ of the Holy Spirit, 
for conveying God's Word, has an order in its various 
parts. As Melanchthon says in the first edition of his 
Loci Communes, with Luther's endorsement, "The Epistle 
to the Romans is the index and canon of all Scripture." 

21. Why was such peculiar position ascribed to one 
book of the Bible, and one author? 

Because it undertakes, upon the basis of a most thor- 
ough survey of all that the Old Testament taught, to in- 
terpret the real significance of the incarnation of the Son 
of God, and of the life and death and resurrection and 
ascension of Jesus. It rests not simply upon the external 
authority of the Apostle, but upon the internal authority 
of the Word which it contains, bringing to a focus the 
whole argument of the Old Testament, and then adding 
to this the Word of the New Testament declared by 
Christ, and enforced by His sitting at the Right Hand of 
God, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Here again we re- 



286 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

cur to a brilliant exposition of the significance of Paul, 
written, with the glow of one who has made a new dis- 
covery, in the opening years of the Reformation : 

"In the number of the divine volumes, some record 
laws, other examples of life and character, some obscure 
prophecies concerning Christ, and still others what Christ 
did. But who has explained more thoroughly, more ac- 
curately, and at greater length than Paul, the gifts which 
Christ acquired by His blood for the entire human race? 
It is something to repeat the laws of life, in order that 
one may know what he should and what he should not do ; 
it is something to present before the eyes examples of life 
as a stimulus to virtues ; it is something to recount what 
Christ did as a model of absolute virtue ; but it is by far 
most important to know what is Christ's true glory, why 
He descended to earth, and of what profit to the world is 
the incarnation of the Eternal Word ; for it is in this that 
the sum of our salvation consists. Laws prescribe the 
form of what is honorable, and afford us examples ; and 
Christ, above all others, is the archetype. But what the 
kindness of Christ obtained for the human race was de- 
clared to the whole world by the Gospel of Paul. Laws 
and models of virtues foreshadow, but the kindness of 
Christ proclaimed by Paul completes and fulfills. ... It 
is from Paul that we learn peculiarly what is the mean- 
ing and what the value of the benefits obtained by 
Christ. . . . Inasmuch as to know Christ is not only to 
know His deeds, but with a thankful heart to embrace 
the benefits, which through Him the Heavenly Father has 
shed abroad throughout the whole world, and which alone 
distinguish those who are truly Christian from the godless 
heathen. . . . Other sacred writers, indeed, have men- 
tioned these benefits here and there ; but more obscurely, 
and so as not to have been readily understood, unless 
Paul, in his numerous epistles and discussions, had made 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 287 

the entire argument clear"* (Melanchthon, January 25th, 
1520). "Neither the predictions of the Prophets, nor the 
histories of the Gospel can be understood unless you fol- 
low his commentaries like a river to the sea. For since 
the sum and substance of Theology consists in the treat- 
ment of human nature, the tyranny of sin, the reign of law 
and the origin and propagation of absolute virtue, the 
Sacraments, only Paul has displayed these topics to the 
eyes of mortals. In short, we would be ignorant of the 
grace of our redemption, and, therefore, of Christ Him- 
self, if God had withheld Paul from the world. For to 
know Christ is not to know the history of His deeds, but 
to recognize the great benefits which through Him God 
diffused throughout the world. ... In vain you study 
the Gospel history, unless, under Paul's guidance, you ob- 
serve the scope and use of that history"f (Melanchthon, 
same year). 

22. Is a distinction between an Inner and an Outward 
Word to be admitted? 

There are not two words, of which one is and the other 
is not a Means of Grace, but the Holy Spirit acts through 
the outward word and through this alone. (See Chapter 
XIX, 7.) "The Spirit is nowhere to be sought save in 
and with the Word" (Luther, Erl. ed., 48:73). 

(a) From the Psalms. 119:92: "Unless thy law had been my delight, 1 
should have perished." 105: "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a 
light unto my path." 19:7: "The law ot Jehovah is perfect, restoring the 
soul." God teaches, converts, illumines as the principal; the word as the 
instrumental cause or the" means. 

(b) From the Prophets, lsa. 55:10, 11: "My word shall not return unto 
me void, but it shall accomplish that which 1 please, and it shall prosper 
in the thing whereto I sent it." 

(c) From the words of Christ, especially the Parable of the Sower, Matt. 
13:23; Mark 4:20; Luke 8:20. 

(d) From the testimony of the Apostles, Rom. 1:16: "The gospel is the 
power of God unto salvation." 10:17: "Faith cometh of hearing, and hear- 
ing by the word of Christ." 15:14: "That we through patience and com- 



*Declamatiuncula in D. Pauli doctrinam (Reprinted 1890, as Appendix 
to Loci Communes, edited by Kolde, pp. 265 sqq). 

■fMelanchton's Works, "Corpus Reformatorum," XK38. 



288 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

fort ot the Scriptures, might have hope." Eph. 1:13; Col. 1:6; 2 Tim. 
3:15, 16; Heb. 4:12; James 1:18, 21; 1 Peter 1:23. 

(e) From passages declaring that through the preaching and teaching ot 
ministers it is God who speaks and acts, Matt. 10:20; Rom. 15:18; 2 Cor. 
13:3; Acts 11:14; 9:15; 2:40, 41. 

To this, we may add all passages which turn men trom imaginary or 
desired supplementary revelations to the testimony ot Scripture. 

Is. 8:19 — "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have 
familiar spirits and unto wizards that chirp and that mutter.... To the 
law and to the testimony! it they speak not according to this word, surely 
there is no morning for them." Luke 16:29 — "They have Moses and the 
prophets, let them hear them." Even the Apostolic preaching had to be 
verified by the testimony of the Scriptures, Acts 17:11. 

23. What 'proofs for this can be given ? 

"God binds us to His oral word, since He says in Luke 
10:16, 'He that heareth you, heareth me.' Here He 
speaks of the oral word proceeding out of the mouth of 
a man, and sounding in the ears of other men, not of a 
spiritual word from heaven, but of that which sounds 
through men's mouths" (Luther, Erl. ed., 57:63.) 

24. Is it the office of the Word simply to afford direc- 
tions that are to be followed in order to obtain salvation ? 

It is more than a directory and guide to Christ. It does 
more than "give directions how to live." It brings and 
communicates the grace concerning which it instructs. 
It has an inherent and objective efficacy, derived from its 
divine institution and promise, and explained by the con- 
stant presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in and 
with it. 

Rom. 1:16 — "The gospel is the power of God unto salvation." John 
6:63 — "The words that I have spoken unto you, are spirit and are life." 
1 Pet. 1 -.22, — "Begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but ot incorruptible, 
through the word of God." Matt. 4:4 — "Man shall not live by bread alone, 
but by every word that proceedeth out ot the mouth ot God." Eph. 6:17, 
Heb. 4:12, Rom. 10:5-10, Is. 55:10. 

25. What testimony is given to the presence of the 
Holy Spirit in and with the Word? 

The words of Scripture are repeatedly cited as the 
words of the Holy Spirit. 

Acts 1:16 — "It was needful that the Scripture be fulfilled, which the 
Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth ot David.' 28:25 — "Well spake 
the Holy Spirit through Isaiah the prophet." Heb. 3:7 — "The Holy Spirit 



Chap. XXIV-] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 289 

saith," introducing a quotation trom a Psalm. 10:15 — "The Holy Spirit 
also beareth -witness," introducing a quotation trom Jeremiah. 

Spirit and Word are declared to be inseparable for all 
time. 

Is. 59:21 — "My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put 
in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth 01 
thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seeds' seed, saith Jehovah, from 
henceforth and for ever." 

26. Is the Word, then, always efficacious? 

To reach its end, the Word must be accepted by the 
person to whom it comes. But its rejection is no more 
indication of any lack of efficacy in the Word itself, than 
the refusal to take a prescribed remedy would demons- 
trate that it is worthless. When our theologians say that 
the Word has efficacy, even without regard to its being 
used, they mean that wherever found, the Holy Spirit is 
present with his illuminating and regenerating influences. 
That some believe and others believe not, that some are 
converted and others remain impenitent, is not attribu- 
table to different degrees of presence and efficacy (see 
Chapter XIX, 8), but to the resistance or non-resistance 
of the Holy Spirit as He comes to us in and through the 
Word (see Chapter XIX, 9; Chapter XXI, 7, 8). 

27. But if the Holy Spirit is always in and zvith the 
Word, why do we constantly pray for the coming and 
presence of the Spirit? 

Precisely as we pray for the coming of the Kingdom of 
God. Of this, our Catechism teaches : "The Kingdom of 
God comes indeed of itself, without our prayer ; but we 
pray in this petition that it may come unto us also," So 
when we pray God to give us His Holy Spirit, we ask 
that we may ever remember and grasp by faith the pres- 
ence of the Spirit, and be ever receptive to His influences. 

Rom. 8:26 — "In like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity; for 
we know not how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himselt maketh inter- 
cession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered." 

The prayer for the gift of the Spirit, has been preceded 
by the presence of the Spirit in the heart of him who 



29O A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV. 

prays. It is like the coming of Christ, celebrated in the 
Advent Season, who came indeed in answer to prophecy, 
nearly 2000 years ago ; but whose advent is repeated in 
every heart, as it yearns for a higher realization of all 
that which His coming means for it. 

28. How does the Word reach men? 

Through the instrumentality of the Church and its 
ministry. 

Rom. 10:14, 15 — "How then shall they call on him whom they have not 
believed r and how shall they believe in him ot whom they have not heard? 
and how shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach 
except they be sent?" 

'The Holy Ghost has a peculiar congregation in the 
world, which is the mother that bears every Christian, 
through the Word of God, which He reveals and preaches 
and through which He illumines and enkindles hearts" 
(Luther, Large Catechism, 444:42). 

29. But how is it apprehended f 

Either as preached or read, or as sealed with an element 
in the Sacraments. 

30. What is the special function of the preached and 
of the read Word? 

The preached Word, with the concurrent testimony of 
the preacher and congregation which it presupposes, is 
used more as a means of awakening, encouraging, stimu- 
lating, and producing conviction and decision. "When 
the Word is read at home it is not as fruitful or as forcible 
as in public preaching and through the mouth of the 
preacher whom God has called for this purpose" (Luther, 
Erl. ed., 3: 401). 

1 Cor. 1:21 — "It was God's good pleasure, through the foolishness ot 
the preaching, to save them that believe.' - Ct. above Rom. 10:14, 15; also 
Rom. 10:8 — "The word of faith which we preach." v. 17 — "Faith cometh 
by hearing." 

The voice of the Holy Spirit is heard through the voice 
of the preacher or the voices of the united congregation 
in confession, prayer and hymn (which are also different 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 291 

forms of preaching, see Chapter XXIX, 27). The con- 
versions recorded in the New Testament were through 
the preached word. Although the preparatory use of the 
read word appears in some instances, it was the voice of 
the living preacher speaking as the result of deep convic- 
tion that brought such influences to ultimate fruition. 
"Because the word of preaching is pervaded by the Spirits 
i. e., because the personal Spirit of God is efficaciously 
present in, with and under the voice of man, preaching 
comes from the Word of God like sunbeams from the 
beaming sun'' (Besser, on Rom. 10: 17). "For the hear- 
ing and preaching of God's Word are instruments of the 
Holy Ghost, by, with and through which He desires to 
work efficaciously, and to convert men to God and to 
work in them both to will and to do" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 562). 

Nevertheless, "it is not from the inspired personality of 
the preacher, but from the inspired Word itself, that the 
efficacy proceeds." "Although undoubtedly one who, in 
word and deed, clearly shows the subjective effect of the 
Word in his own life, moves many to open their ears to 
the preaching of the Gospel, who would have closed them, 
if there had been a glaring contrast between the person- 
ality of the preacher, and his message ; yet, this personal 
factor is only paedagogical or propaedeutical. It is an- 
alogous to the objective miracles of Revelation, whose 
office is to lead to the Word. The Word is in itself the 
living seed of regeneration ; the hand which does the sow- 
ing can add to it no further efficacy" (Philippi, V, 2: 15) 

31. How does the read Word differ? 

It is "by means of the daily exercise of reading and 
applying to practice God's Word," that we are "preserved 
in faith and his heavenly gifts, strengthened from day to 
day, and supported unto the end" (Formula of Concord, 
555). It is thus preparatory or supplementary to the 



292 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV 

preached word. It is necessarily more restricted in scope 
than the preached word ; for printed Bibles in wide circu- 
lation date only from the Reformation. Even with the 
wide diffusion of intelligence and education today, there 
are millions of Christians still who are dependent upon 
the voice of the living preacher for all their religious 
knowledge. But the written word remains the rule and 
guide for all time according to which the preached word 
must be judged; as well as the source whence the preacher 
derives the material and inspiration for his sermons. The 
preached word can never dispense with the read word ; 
nor the read word with the preached word. Bible and 
preacher belong together. "What God hath joined to- 
gether, let not man put asunder." Cargoes of Bibles 
without missionaries will never convert the heathen. 
Armies of preachers, without the Holy Scriptures in their 
hands and on their lips and in their hearts, would only 
lead us back to the heathenism of our forefathers. 

32. How is this "daily exercise of reading'' to be ob- 
served so as to derive from it the benefits for zvhich the 
Scriptures have been given ? 

(a) By constantly remembering the purpose of Scrip- 
ture, not as a model of literature, or an aggregate of his- 
torical documents, or a storehouse of secular learning, 
but as a Means of Grace, (b) By ever fixing our eyes on 
the center of Scripture, Christ, and judging all books and 
all passages with respect to their relation to Him, and His 
interpretation of them, (c) By learning more and more 
of the scope and purport of particular books and para- 
graphs, and in order to grasp their unity, undertaking 
the reading of large portions at one time, as, in current 
literature, we read an address or lecture or even long 
argument at a single sitting. It is the general temper and 
disposition that we gain by protracted contact with the 
life-giving Spirit of God, speaking through the Word, 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 293 

that is to be prized even more than any facts or detached 
texts with which we may store the memory. God did not 
give the Bible as a repository of texts, but as one complete 
revelation of Himself to sinful man. (d) By prizing 
single words and passages of Scripture only with refer- 
ence to the whole of which they are a part. The micro- 
scopic examination of Scripture has its place, where par- 
ticular words focus or bring to a head an entire argument, 
(e) By comparing Scripture with Scripture. The tables 
of parallel passages in some of our Bibles are important 
aids, but, as one advances, it is chiefly his own knowl- 
edge of Scripture, upon which he must draw, (f) By 
living in Scripture, making it the key to decipher one's 
own life, and finding every hour in such a life, illustra- 
tions of its power and truth. "As thou readest, think that 
every syllable pertaineth to thine one self, and suck out the 
pith of the Scripture, and arm thyself against all assaults" 
(Tyndale). "What are all the Psalms of David but 
definitions and descriptions of faith, of love and of hope?" 
'The Psalter is nothing but a school, and series of exer- 
cises of faith." "He who reads it without faith, finds 
nothing there but darkness and cold ; he remains without 
light and without warmth" (Luther). 

33. Is the success of preaching as a means of grace 
conditioned by the observance of similar principles by 
the preacher? 

Undoubtedly. For it is not preaching itself, but the 
Word as preached which is a means of grace. This de- 
mands not only that nothing be preached but what comes 
directly or indirectly from Holy Scripture, but also that 
the contents of Holy Scripture be preached in due propor- 
tion and in the proper order. Nothing that God has re- 
vealed is without its appropriate use and application ; but 
it is all important that the center of what is scriptural hold 
the chief place, and that all else be urged only with refer- 



294 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV 

ence towards such center. Everything that concerns 
man as a moral and religious being should be treated in 
the light of Law and Gospel. Not only is Christ the cen- 
ter of all true preaching of the Word, but we must learn 
to grasp and inculcate what is central in the doctrine con- 
cerning Christ. True preaching in fact is not so much a 
preaching about Christ, as it is preaching Christ Himself, 
and that the crucified Christ. 

i Cor. 1:23, 24 — "But we preach Christ crucified, unto Jews a stumbling- 
block, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto them that are called, both 
Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." 
2:2 — "1 determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified." 

The proper theme of the pulpit is not philosophy, not 
literature, not ethical or economical or sociological the- 
ories, even for audiences of highly educated people, but 
the cross in its manifold relations and with its many les- 
sons. He who abides close to the cross, will be sure to 
find hearers to whom his words will be like cold water to 
the parched tongue. All preaching that has been of per- 
manent influence has been a preaching of the crucified. 
Jesus, which, as will be seen below, is a preaching of Law 
(Chapter XXV, 24). as well as Gospel. The chief stress. 
in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper lies upon this 
central fact of Christianity, which recalls the Church, as 
often as it is administered, to what must be at once the 
standard, and the beginning and end of all its preaching. 
Even the crucifix, under the Papacy, had its use, as 
Luther thought (Walch ed. 21:441), in attracting the 
mind of the dying from their own merits and works to the 
suffering Saviour as their only hope. ■ 

34. What keeps preaching close to this center? 

(a) The proper understanding of Scripture. He who 
reads the Scriptures in order to find Christ at every point, 
cannot but make Christ the beginning, middle and end 
of every sermon. 

(b) The testimony of the lives of those who have pre- 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 295 

ceded us, in whom "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to- 
day and forever" was manifested and glorified (Heb. 
12:8). 

(c) A proper appreciation of the spiritual life as it is 
struggling in much weakness in the hearts of even the 
humblest of our hearers. Shall thev whose hearts are 
hungering for the Gospel be put off with mere husks? 

(d) Close contact, therefore, with the common life of 
Christ as it pervades the entire "communion of saints," 
from those saints who speak or are spoken of in Scrip- 
ture (e. g., Heb. n) to those who are with us today in 
our congregations as well as elsewhere. 

35. What especial provision has been an important aid 
in preserving the true proportion in preaching the Word? 

The Church Year with its lessons. It has retained its 
hold, not because of anv Church authority which 
has determined it, but because it has met an im- 
portant demand of the religious life of the com- 
munion of saints, with what has been found after 
centuries of trial to be most edifying. With all 
the stress the Lutheran Church lays upon sound 
doctrine and scientific theology, and the prominence of 
Dogmatics in its history, its preaching has been preserved 
from being dogmatical by its devotion to the annual cycle 
of Gospel Lessons. In them Christ appears not as an 
abstraction, but, in all His relations, as a concrete reality, 
progressively unfolding His revelation of the Kingdom 
of God. 

A well known theologian of the Reformed Church, in 
advocating the Church Year to those with whom it is 
not, as with us, an inheritance, writes : 

"Thus does the Church Year call forth the whole Order 
of Salvation before our eyes, and its different Sundays 
are as so many pearls, strung in regular order upon one 
string. For the congregation, the preaching of the his- 
toric Christ in all His fulness is in this way promoted and 



296 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIV 

rendered fruitful. He is thus depicted before their eyes 
in the various stadia of His life of humiliation and exalta- 
tion, and the great facts of salvation are in this way con- 
stantly anew brought to light in their natural order. The 
preacher has in connection with this method, no chain 
attached to his foot, but rather a clue placed in his hands, 
which of itself decides his choice of texts, saves him per- 
plexity and loss of time, and quickens his homiletic power 
of discovery by directing his eye now and then to texts 
which lie outside of the beaten paths of the most familiar 
ones. The communion of saints, finally is fostered and 
preserved, where the choice of the material for preaching 
is no longer dependent upon absolute caprice, but the eye 
of the Church, even in different lands and communities, 
is methodically directed to the same or similar facts, and 
thus God's saving revelation in Christ is, from year to 
year, constantly to a greater extent inwardly lived 
through" (Van Oosterzee, "Practical Theology," 228 sq.). 

36. Hozv may this system be abused? 

By resting in it, instead of simply making it the out- 
line around which to cluster the entire contents of Holy 
Scripture. No prescribed course of lessons can ever be 
a substitute for the entire canon of revelation. The best 
system only offers suggestions which not only cannot be 
universally binding, but in which the peculiar demands of 
time, place and circumstances always will advise changes. 
Wherever there is true life, there is adaptation to change 
and ever changing relations. 

37. How does the teaching of the Roman Catholic 
Church concerning the Word as a Means of Grace differ 
from that of the Lutheran Church? 

According to Rome, the only proper Means of Grace 
are the Sacraments ; and it is the office of the Word, either 
in the form of tradition promulgated by Papal authority, 
or of Holy Scripture in the Latin Vulgate, to lead to the 
Sacraments. 



Chap. XXIV.] THE WORD AS THE MEANS OF GRACE. 297 

38. How does the teaching of the Reformed Church 
or Churches differ from the Lutheran in this respect? 

While there is often an approach to the Lutheran view, 
nevertheless there is a lack of clearness in declaring that 
the external Word is actually a means through which the 
Holy Spirit imparts His grace. Zwingli objected to the 
idea of "means of grace." "A channel or vehicle," he says 
("Ratio Fidei") "is not necessary for the Spirit, since 
He Himself is the virtue or energy, by which all things 
are borne, and has no need of being borne. " The "Means 
of Grace," with the Reformed are, therefore, ordinances 
by which man approaches God, rather than instrumen- 
talities by which God approaches man. According to 
Calvin, the office of the Word is simply to declare to us 
God's will ; 1a thought which is true as far as it goes. The 
Word is regarded, therefore, as like the Sacraments in 
their system, a sign, a pledge, a seal, of that which only 
becomes ours by the inner illumination of the Spirit. We 
hold, however, in accordance with the Scriptural passages 
already cited, that the Word is more than a sign or seal 
or pledge or guide or directory, but, in addition to teach- 
ing the way of life, that, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, 
it actually confers upon the believing that whereof it 
speaks ; it not only offers blessings to faith, but also 
through the Holy Spirit who is with it, produces the faith 
which receives these blessings ; it not only renders us re- 
ceptive to the Holy Spirit, but is the means through which 
the Spirit works. With the Reformed, the Holy Scrip- 
tures are regarded chiefly as a store-house of divine 
truths, a digest of doctrines that are to be received : with 
the Lutheran Church they are chiefly a Means of Grace, 
charged with divine life, energy and salvation, which is 
communicated to all using them aright, the dwelling-place 
of the Holy Spirit with all His gifts. With the Reformed, 
the Holy Scriptures are regarded more in the light of a 



298 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

code of laws ; with Lutherans, more as a divine seed that, 
by the presence of the Spirit, is to bring forth a bountiful 
harvest. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 

1. How is the Word of God divided? 

Into Law and Gospel, or Command and Promise. 

2. Does this distinction coincide with that betzveen th& 
Old and the New Testaments ? 

No. There is Gospel in the Old Testament, as the 
promise concerning Christ was made from man's fall 
(Gen. 3: 15), and became fuller and clearer as the time 
of its fulfilment approached (see Chapter X, 1, 5). There 
is also Law in the New Testament, of which the Sermon 
on the Mount is a summary (see Chapter XIII, 9-12). 
But in the Old Testament, Law ; in the New Tes f ament, 
Gospel preponderates. 

3. Where is this distinction briefly stated? 

John 1:17 — "The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came 
through Jesus Christ." 2 Cor. 3:6 — "Who also made us sufficient as min- 
isters of a new covenant; not of the letter, but ot the spirit; tor the letter 
killeth, but the spirit giveth life." 

In the former passage, the grace of the Gospel is con- 
trasted with the inflexible rigor of the Law ; and the ful- 
filment of the promise and the presence of the substance 
under the Gospel, with the types and shadows of the Law. 

In the second passage, the points of contrast are: (a) 
Between the Law, or letter, as prescribing a course of 
conduct and making demands, but giving no power to 
obey ; and the Gospel as bringing the Holy Spirit with His 
regenerating and renewing powers. (b) Between the 
Law as leading to despair, when the impossibility of 
meeting its demands is learned ; and the Gospel as en- 
couraging and cheering with its offer of Christ's right- 



Chap. XXV.] THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 299 

eousness as our own. (c) Between the Law, as except 
through Christ nothing but a letter, and the Gospel, as 
being the fulfilment of the Law in us by the enkindling of 
love, (d) Between the Law as containing much that is 
typical and unintelligible until its true interpretation is 
found in the Gospel, and the Gospel as the goal of all that 
towards which the Law is directed. 

4. What importance is attached to the distinction be- 
tween Law and Gospel? 

'This distinction between Law and Gospel is the high- 
est art in Christianity, which all who boast or accept the 
Christian name, can or should know. For where there is 
a defect on this point, a Christian cannot be distinguished 
from a heathen or a Jew ; for it is just here that the differ- 
ence lies" (Luther). 

The greatest care must be taken, "lest these two doc- 
trines be mingled with one another, or out of the Gospel a 
law be made, whereby the merit of Christ is obscured and 
troubled consciences robbed of the comfort they would 
otherwise have" (Formula of Concord, 589). 

5. What, then, is the main point of difference? 
Everything in Holy Scripture that commands us to do 

or to give or to be something, or that forbids us to do or 
give, or be, is Law. Everything that asks us to receive 
something is Gospel. "By the Law, nothing else is meant 
than God's Word and command, wherein He enjoins what 
we should do and leave undone, and demands our obedi- 
ence. But the Gospel is that doctrine or Word of God 
that neither requires works of us, nor enjoins the doing 
of anything, but announces only the offered grace of the 
forgiveness of sins and eternal life. The Gospel offers 
God's gifts and bids us only open the sack to receive them, 
while the Law gives nothing, but only takes and demands 
of us" (Luther). 

Everything that reproves sin and threatens is Law ; 
everything that encourages and comforts and offers the 



300 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

grace of God is Gospel (see Formula of Concord, 593). 
'The Law shows sin ; the Gospel, grace. The Law in- 
dicates the disease ; the Gospel, the remedy. The Law, 
to use the words of Paul, is a minister of death ; the Gos- 
pel, of life and peace" (Melanchthon). 

Rom. 3:20 — "Through the law cometh the knowledge of sin. ; ' Rom. 
7 '-7 — "I had not known sin except through the law." Gal. 3:12 — "The law 
is not of faith; but he that doeth them, shall live in them." 

6. Are the words "Law" and "Gospel" used in Holy 
Scripture in but one sense ? 

Each has various meanings. In its widest sense, Law 
includes all that God has revealed (Ps. 1:2). In a nar- 
rower sense, it refers to the Old Testament (John 10: 34), 
and particularly, the Pentateuch (Luke 24:44). In its 
strictest sense, as used here, it is God's revelation of His 
will concerning man's character and acts. So "Gospel," 
in the widest sense, means all the doctrine taught by 
Christ and His Apostles (Mark 1 : 1-14; 16: 15). But as 
contradistinguished from Law it designates the promise 
of grace through Christ, whether before His coming, or 
since He has come (Is. 41 : 27 ; 52 : 7 ; Rom. 10 : 16; 1:2). 

7. How has the Lazv been divided? 

Into universal and particular. The former has been 
declared from the beginning, and pertains to all times and 
places. The latter was prescribed for temporary pur- 
poses to a particular nation. The former we know as the 
Moral Law ; the latter is divided, according to its diverse 
purposes, into the Forensic and the Ceremonial. 

8. What is the Moral Law? 

God's declaration concerning what He would have 
man be, do or omit to do. "Divine doctrine, wherein the 
true and unmistakable will of God is revealed, as to how 
man ought to be, in his nature, thoughts, words and 
works, in order to be pleasing and acceptable to God." 
"Divine doctrine teaching what is right and pleasing to 
God, and reproving everything that is sin and contrary to 
God's will" (see Chapter VIII, 2-4). 



Chap. XXV.] THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 3OI 

9. Hozv has the Moral Law been distinguished? 

Into Natural and Revealed. The former designates the 
original knowledge of God's will impressed upon man's 
nature when created, and constituting one of the features 
of the Image of God (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). (See 
Chapter VII, 27, 28.) While, by the Fall, this knowledge 
was largely lost and greatly corrupted and perverted, 
some traces of it still remain. Conscience, or the power 
to discriminate between right and wrong belongs to some 
extent to all men. "Human reason naturally understands 
in some way the law" (Apology, 85). 

Rom. 2:14, 15 — "For when the Gentiles that have not the law do by 
nature the things of the law, these not having the law, are the law unto 
themselves, in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, 
their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with 
another accusing or else excusing them." 

10. What is the office of the Natural Law? 

To stimulate men to seek after God (Acts 17: 27), and 
when they fail to respond to convict them of sin (Rom. 
1 : 20). 

11. What shows its feebleness in man's fallen estate? 
Its merely superficial effects. The knowledge of the 

extent of the inner corruption of the heart is learned only 
from the revealed law. 

Rom. 7:7 — "I have not known sin except through the law" (i. e. the re- 
vealed Moral Law) ; "for I had not known coveting except the law had 
said, Thou shalt not covet." v. 8 — "For apart from the law sin is dead.'' 
The connection shows that the meaning is, that unless the Revealed Moral 
Law be known, the knowledge of sin is so weak that it may be accounted 
dead. 

12. What is the Revealed Moral Law? 

The declarations of God's will repeatedly given to man 
since the Fall, and formally promulgated through Moses 
on Mt. Sinai, concerning matters of universal and per- 
manent obligation. 

13. Where is it summarized? 

In general, in the Ten Commandments, and still further 
by Christ in Matt. 22 : 37-40 : 



302 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. 
And a second like unto it, is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
On these two commandments the whole law hangeth and the prophets." 

14. Where are the Ten Commandments repeated? 

In Matt. 19: 18, 19; Mark 10: 19; Luke 18:20; Rom. 

1 3 : 9- 

15. Where is their meaning fully explained and ap- 
plied? 

In the Sermon on the Mount. 

16. How can the perpetual obligation of particular 
precepts be determined, and their place in the Moral Law 
established? 

Any precept of the Old Testament sanctioned by the 
express words of Christ or any of the inspired writers of 
the New Testament, belongs most clearly to the Moral 
Law. 

17. Can we say that everything in the Ten Command- 
ments as reported in Ex. 20 belongs to the Moral Law? 

In the promise of the Fourth Commandment, the par- 
ticular blessing was local and national. St. Paul, accord- 
ingly, shows in Eph. 6 : 3, that there was a generic bless- 
ing, which lifted the promise to a higher level and gave 
it a vaster range. So the Third Commandment, concern- 
ing the Sabbath, contains a ceremonial element, which our 
Catechism, following St. Paul in Col. 2 : 16, traces to a 
generic command of universal obligation concerning the 
preaching and hearing of God's Word, and of a cessation 
of labor for that purpose. 

18. Is the Moral Law a code of co-ordinate and par- 
allel precepts? 

It is an organic whole, reducible first to two, and at 
last to one commandment, that of supreme love to God 
( Matt. 22 : 37-40 ; Luke 10 : 2j) . 

19. What is its sphere? 

It includes all the acts and states and relations of men. 



Chap. XXV.] THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 303 

But it lays chief stress upon the inner life, the thoughts 
and intents of the heart (Matt. 5:22, 28), and summar- 
izes all its demands in the one word "love." 

20. What obedience does the Moral Law demand ? 
That which is the most perfect and complete : 

(a) As to the source of the acts. As above seen they 
must proceed from entire and completely self-surrender- 
ing and self-forgetting love, and be wrought by man's 
undivided powers. 

(b) As to the details of the acts. The failure of the 
least particular vitiates the whole. A chain is no stronger 
than its weakest link. 

Deut. 27:26 — "Cursed be he that confirmeth not the words ot this law, 
to do them." Gal. 3:10 — "Cursed is he that continueth not in all things 
written in the book of the law, to do them." James 2:10 — "For whosoever 
shall keep the whole law, and yet shall stumble in one point, he is guilty 
of all." 

(c) As to perseverance. Even if perfection were at- 
tainable for a time, it is valueless unless maintained to 
the end. 

Ez. 18:24 — "When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, 
and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that 
the wicked man doeth, shall he live? None ot his righteous deeds that he 
hath done shall be remembered; in his trespass that he hath trespassed, 
and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." 

21. What is the result ? 

Man, because of his depraved and enfeebled nature, 
being unable to meet these demands, the Law which has 
been given for eternal life, becomes accidentally the occa- 
sion for eternal death. 

Rom. 7:10 — "The commandment which was unto lite, this I found to be 
unto death." v. 12 — "So that the law is holy and righteous and good.... 
but sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through 
that which is good." 

The Epistle to the Romans opens with a long argu- 
ment, showing the inability both of the Gentiles by the 
Natural, and of the Jews by the Revealed Law to attain 
justification before God. 

Rom. 3:20 — "By the works of the law, shall no flesh be justified; for 
by the law is the knowledge ot sin." 



304 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

22. If the Lazv, therefore, cannot justify, is it not 
useless? 

"As the argument is invalid, 'Money does not justify, 
therefore it is useless' ; 'the eyes do not justify, therefore 
they should be torn out'; 'the hands do not justify, there- 
fore they must be amputated' ; so, too, the argument is 
equally fallacious that the Law is useless, because it does 
not justify. We should ascribe to everything its proper 
office and use. In denying that it justifies, we do not de- 
stroy or condemn the Law" (Luther). 

Another illustration of Luther is that the Law is food 
which the organs of the invalid, enfeebled by sin cannot 
digest. 

23. What, then, is the use cf the Law? 
It has a three-fold use : 

(a) Political. By its threats of punishment, it checks 
the violence of godless men, and protects society against 
external acts of crime. It is of this use that 1 Tim. 1 : 9 
sq. speaks : 

"The law is not made for a righteous man, but tor the lawless and un- 
ruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, tor murder- 
ers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for fornicators," etc. 

(b) Elenchtical. As it convicts or convinces of sin. 

Rom. 3:20 — "Through the law, cometh the knowledge ot sin." 

This it does by bringing evidence not attainable by the 
light of nature, and by showing that what is chiefly sig- 
nificant is that, beneath the act, there is. such a desperate 
state of sin. The Law is not only the standard, by which 
sins are discerned, but the light which displays them in 
all their heinousness and enormity. It does more than 
instruct concerning sin ; the Holy Spirit uses it as a means 
to condemn and terrify on account of sin. 

Rom. 4:15 — "For the law worketh wrath." John 16:8 — "He will convict 
the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment." 

Thus the law indirectly leads or forces men to Christ 
(Gal. 3:24). This indirect office has been separated 



Chap. XXV.] THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 305 

from the elenchtical use by our later Lutheran theologians 
and called the pedagogical. 

24. Before proceeding to the third or didactic use, 
state whether the consideration of the sufferings of Christ, 
as an exhibition of God's anger against sin, does not be- 
long to the elenchtical use of the law, rather than to the 
Gospel. 

The consideration of the sufferings of Christ has a 
double effect. They reveal, as nowhere else, the guilt of 
sin, and they testify to the love of God for sinners. The 
former belongs to the elenchtical use of the law ; the latter 
to the Gospel. See Formula of Concord, 591 : 

"What more forcible declaration of God's wrath against 
sin is there, than the suffering and death of Christ His 
Son ? But as long as this all preaches God's wrath and 
terrifies men, it is still properly the preaching neither of 
the Gospel, nor of Christ, but of Moses and the Law 
against the impenitent. For the Gospel and Christ were 
never provided in order to terrify and condemn, but in 
order to comfort and cheer those who are terrified and 
timid." 

25. What, then, is the didactic or third use? 

As a guide and standard for the regenerate. 'The 
Holy Ghost teaches the regenerate, in the Ten Commiand- 
ments, in what good works 'God hath before ordained 
that they should walk' (Eph. 2: 10)" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 597). 

26. But why is this necessary, when the regenerate 
have the Holy Spirit who constantly impels them to do 
God's will? 

Because of their corrupt nature which is only partially 
renewed, they can never trust their own impulses, but 
must constantly test them by God's law, in order to deter- 
mine what is of God and what is of the flesh. 



306 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

27. What is necessary for fulfilling the duty of a true 
Christian pastor in preaching ihe Law? 

That all of these uses of the Law be constantly urged, 
and that none of their requirements be abated. The hearts 
of men are receptive to the Gospel only to the extent that 
they have been enlightened by the Law. 

Matt. 5:6 — "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst alter righteousness; 
for they shall be filled." 

Great danger is always imminent lest the demands of 
the Law be relaxed in accommodation to the weaknesses 
of men, and lest, in commending purely external morality 
and urging its demands, its insufficiency for justification, 
and the deeper righteousness of the heart be overlooked. 

28. What were the Forensic and the Ceremonial Law? 
The Forensic Law was the code of the Isnaelitic State ; 

the Ceremonial, the ritual of the Israelitic Church. 

29. How were they related to the Moral Law? 

They are applications of the Moral Law to the tempo- 
rary circumstances and conditions of the Jewish people. 
The Ceremonial Law provided for a series of exercises of 
the First Table of the Law, by defining the rites of wor- 
ship and its circumstances. The Forensic Law provided 
for a series of exercises of the Second Table, by prescrib- 
ing rules of conduct in respect to man's social and civil 
relations. In the theocracy, everything was determined by 
direct and minute prescription. In the educational pro- 
cess, whereby God was training for Himself a people, at 
first nothing whatever was left to human freedom or 
man's enlightened conscience. The period was one which 
had not received the endowment of the Spirit in His ful- 
ness. (See Chapter XVI, 4.) 

30. How did the Forensic and Ceremonial Lazvs dif- 
fer from the Moral? 

(a) In mode of revelation. The Moral was implanted 
in man's nature, at his creation ; and on Sinai was only 



Chap. XXV.] THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 307 

republished, whereas the Forensic and Ceremonial were 
given only through Moses. 

(b) In obligation. The Moral Law is universal; the 
Forensic and Ceremonial Laws were obligatory only as 
long as the Israelitic State stood, and even then only 
upon Jews. 

(c) In duration. The Moral Law is perpetual; since it 
is the declaration of God's eternal will. But, as the 
Epistle to the Hebrews shows in a long argument, the 
Forensic and Ceremonial are limited in duration. 

(d) In purpose. The object of the Forensic and Cere- 
monial Laws was to keep Israel separate from other na- 
tions, that through it God's purposes for the race might 
be prepared. The Moral Law was to direct the experi- 
ence and destiny of people of all nations and times, not 
only within, but beyond and above the limits of Israel. 

31. How do you prove the abrogation of the Forensic 
Law? 

The destruction of the Jewish State renders its admin- 
istration an impossibility- Obedience to the rulers of 
other governments is commanded (Rom. 13: 1, 5; 1 Peter 
2: 13 sq.). Citizenship in other States is approved' (Acts 
22:25; 25: 10). 

22. What were the contents of the Ceremonial Law? 
Regulations concerning : 

(a) Sacred persons — the high priest, the priests, Le- 
vites, Nazarites, etc., and prescriptions concerning per- 
sonal matters, as food and drink, clothing and other 
matters pertaining to the individual or domestic life. 

(b) Sacred things — the furniture, vessels and utensils 
for public worship, and the sacrifices and sacraments of 
the Old Testament. 

A sacrifice is a siacred action, in which an object is 
offered to God through a prescribed ceremony, as an ac- 
knowledgment of the guilt of sin (Heb. 10:3), and a 



308 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

testimony to the complete and perfect sacrifice which God 
was hereafter to provide. 

(c) Sacred times— the Sabbath, the Feast of Trum- 
pets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, the 
Feast of Pentecost, the Sabbatical Year, the Feast of 
Jubilee. 

(d) Sacred places — the Holy City, the Tabernacle, the 
Temple. In these buildings, each of its three divisions, 
the Court, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, had 
its peculiar significance. 

33. What was the chief object of the Ceremonial Law? 
To foreshadow the blessings to be procured and offered 

through Christ. 

Col. 2:16, 17 — "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, 
or in respect of a feast day, or of a new moon, or a sabbath day: which 
are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's." 

34. Hozv is the abrogation of the Ceremonial Law 
proved? 

(a) From the argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
concerning Melchisedek. 

Heb. 7:12 — "For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity 
a change also of the law." 

(b) From its argument concerning the temporary 
character of the first tabernacle. 

Heb. 9:9 — "Which is a figure for the time present." v. 12 — "But Christ 
having come through the greater and more perfect tabernacle." 

(c) From the proceedings of the council at Jerusalem, 
the first synod of the Christian Church. (Acts 15: 1 sqq.). 

(d) From Peter's vision (Acts 10: 11). 

(e) From Paul's rebuke of Peter (Gal. 2: 14-16), and 
of the Galatians, who insisted on the permanence of cere- 
monial ordinances. 

Gal. 4:10, 11 — "Ye observe days and months and seasons and years. 1 
am afraid of you, lest by any means 1 have bestowed labor upon you in 
vain." 5:2 — "If ye receive circumcision, Christ shall profit you nothing." 

(f) When the body comes, its shadow disappears; the 
type yields to the antitype (Heb. 10: I ; Col. 2: 17). 



Chap. XXV.] THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 309 

35. How is "Gospel" to be defined ivhen contrasted 
with "Law"? 

The promise of the gratuitous forgiveness of sins for 
Christ's sake. (See (above, 6.) 

In the New Testament the verb " euaggelizein" occurs 
fifty-six, and the noun "euaggelion," seventy-two times, 
In the Gospels and Acts, the reference is simply to "good 
tidings." In Luke 16: 16, the contrast with "Law" first 
appears. In the Epistles the restriction to the specific 
good tidings brought by Christ becomes very marked, as 
in Gal. 1 : 8; Rom. i : 16. A study of the passages in the 
Gospels, in the light of the use of the word in the Epistles, 
shows that the same specific meaning belongs also there. 

"It is the complex of the promises which are grateful, 
joyful and salutary to sinful men, a summary of which is 
found in John 3: 16" (Baier). 

36. How does the Gospel regard Christ ? 

Solely in His Mediatorial Office, with its Priestly func- 
tions as the very center. 

37. Can any doctrine concerning the goodness or the 
Fatherhood of God, which is not based upon a clear con- 
fession of the divinity and priestly work of Christ be 
termed "Gospel' '? 

In answer to some modern theologians who have bad a 
wide hearing and who claim that the Gospel is not doc- 
trine concerning Jesus Christ, but only concerning God 
the Father, we turn to Paul. 

Rom. 1:1-4 — "The Gospel of God, concerning his Son, Jesus Christ our 
Lord," etc. 

38. May it not be regarded a new law, offering salva- 
tion upon easier terms than were given by the former law? 

Law and Gospel differ not in degree, but in kind. The 
Gospel offers an entirely different righteousness from that 
which is attainable by the Law (Rom. 1 : 17; 3 : 21). 

39. How do they differ? 

(a) In revelation. The Law partially by Nature (Rom. 



3IO A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXV. 

2:15); the Gospel only through Christ (John 1:18; 
Rom. 16 : 26 ; Col. 1 : 26 ; Eph. 3:9; Matt. 1 1 : 25-27) . 

(b) In subject miatter. The Law is doctrine concerning 
works, prescribing what we ought to be, to do, or to omit 
to do (Ex. 20) ; the Gospel is doctrine concerning faith 
(Rom. 1 : 17) offering Christ and bringing the Holy 
Spirit. 

(c) In form. The promises of the Law are conditional, 
requiring perfect obedience (Lev. 18:5); those of the 
Gospel are gratuitous (Rom. 3:23-25; 4:4, 5). 

(d) In effect. The Law accuses, terrifies, works 
wrath (Rom. 3:20; 4:20); the Gospel consoles. The 
Law makes known the disease ; the Gospel brings the 
physician and the remedy (Rom. 1:16). (See also 
above, 3, 5.) 

40. In what do they coincide? 

Both are heavenly doctrine divinely revealed. Of both 
God is author. Of both the purpose is salvation, the in- 
adequacy of the law being attributable to no inherent 
weakness, but to man's inability, in his enfeebled state, to 
fulfil its requirements (Rom. 8:3; 7:12, 13). Both 
are universal ; the Law announces a universal obligation ; 
the other tenders a universal promise. Both are of per- 
petual validity; .the Law (Matt. 5:18); the Gospel 
(Matt. 28: 19 sq. ; Rev. 14: 6). 

They harmoniously unite and co-operate, when the 
Law demands complete obedience, and the Gospel de- 
clares that this complete obedience has been rendered for 
us by Christ. 

Rom. 3:31 — "Do we then make the law ot none effect through taith? 
nay, we establish the law." 

In Illumination, the Law shows the need of faith ; in 
Regeneration, the Gospel brings faith. In the Renewal, 
the Law indicates the works that please God ; while the 
Gospel brings the true motives and the strength to do 
these works (2 Cor. 5: 14, 15). 



Chap. XXVI. ] THE SACRAMENTS. 311 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE SACRAMENTS. 

1. In what two ways is the Gospel applied as a Means 
of Grace? 

Either to a congregation, i. e., a number of persons at 
the same time ; or to an individual, separate and apart 
from all others. The former occurs in preaching; the lat- 
ter in the pastoral care of souls, in the absolution, and in 
the Sacraments. 

2. What distinguishes the Sacraments from other 
means of individualizing the general word, of the Gospel? 

That the word is accompanied by a divinely appointed 
action and the use of an external object or element, 
through which the promise is sealed. 

3. Define a Sacrament? 

It is an action appointed by Christ, in which the general 
promise of the Gospel concerning the forgiveness of sins 
for Christ's sake is applied and sealed to an individual in 
the use of an external element. 

4. Why do yon call it an action? 

Because the institution prescribes an action, without 
which there is no Sacrament. The command is "baptize," 
"this do ye," "take this and divide it." In the administra- 
tion of the Sacraments, all else is simply preparatory or 
supplementary to the action. 

5. Is the term l< Sacrament" biblical? 

No. It is an ecclesiastical term used to express the 
features which the two divinely-prescribed actions of the 
New Testament, Baptism and the Lord's Supper have in 
common, as contradistinguished from all other rites. 

6. Whence was it derived? 

In classical Latin, it designated the money deposited 
as a pledge by each party to a law suit. Transferred to 



312 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVI. 

military language, it soon meant the soldier's oath. In 
the Vulgate, it was the equivalent of the Greek "mus- 
terion/ both of the LXX of Dan. 2: 18; 4: 6, and of the 
New Testament in Eph. 3:3; 5 : 32 ; 1 Tim. 3 : 16. Ter- 
tullian applied it to Baptism, as an application of the mili- 
tary oath to the Christian warfare. Augustine defines it 
in general as "a visible form of invisible grace." There 
was much variation in its use up to the time of the Re- 
formation. 

7. How was it employed by the Reformers? '• 

In Luther's earlier reformatory writings, he suggests 
that, because of the abuse of the term, it be entirely abol- 
ished. He declares that there is but one Sacrament, re- 
ferring to the Incarnation, according to the Vulgate of 
1 Tim. 3 : 16, and suggests further that the term "sacra- 
mental sign" be substituted. Gradually, however, he re- 
curred to the current term, although, like Melanchthon, 
wavering in its application, so as sometimes to include 
"Absolution," as a third sacrament. This is the classi- 
fication in the Apology, 214. ,, 

8. Hozv could Absolution be regarded as a Sacrament f 
Because, like Baptism and the Lord's Supper, it applies 

the general promise of the Gospel to an individual. Un- 
like Baptism and the Lord's Supper, there is in Absolution 
no divinely prescribed action in which this is done ; 
hence it soon ceased to be reckoned among the Sacra- 
ments. 

9. What, therefore, is the peculiar office of a Sacra- 
ment? , . .. ( . . . 

To apply to an individual the general promise oi the 
Gospel concerning the forgiveness t of -sins, in connection 
with an external divinely appointed rite offering through 
earthly elements a pledge of the grace which is present. 

10. How do our Confessions describe them? 
"They are rites which have the command of God and 



Chap. XXVI. ] THE SACRAMENTS. 313 

to which the promise of grace has been added" (Apology, 
213). "Christ causes the promise of the Gospel to be 
offered not only in general, but, through the Sacraments, 
which He attaches as seals of the promise, He seals and 
thereby confirms the certainty of the promise of the Gos- 
pel to every believer" (Formula of Concord, 656). . 

II. How is this thought amplified by our theologians? 

Melanchthon has more fully stated this in his Loci 
Communes (first edition): "Signs do not justify. The 
Apostle says : 'Circumcision is nothing.' So Baptism is 
nothing and the partaking of the Lord's Supper is nothing, 
but only witnesses and seals of God's will towards thee, 
whereby thy conscience may be assured, if it doubt con- 
cerning grace and the benevolence of God towards itself 
As Hezekiah could not doubt that he would recover when 
he heard the promise >and saw this promise confirmed by 
a sign ; as Gideon could not doubt that he would conquer, 
when he was confirmed by so many signs, so thou ought- 
est not to doubt that thou hast obtained mercy when thou 
hast heard the Gospel, and hast received the seal of the 
Gospel, baptism and the body and blood of the Lord. 
Hezekkh could have recovered, even without a sign, if he 
had been willing to believe the bare promise, or Gideon 
would have conquered without a sign, if he had believed. 
So, provided only thou believest, thou canst, even without 
a sign, be justified. Signs, then, do not justify, but by 
such signs the faith of Hezekiah and of Gideon was aided 
and confirmed. Thus, too, lest amidst the constant attacks 
of sin, we may despair of God's mercy, our weakness is 
encouraged by signs. If God Himself were to converse 
with thee face to face, if He would offer thee some pecu- 
liar pledge of His mercy, as a miracle of any kind what- 
ever, then thou wouldst consider this as nothing else than 
a sign of the divine favor. As to these signs, therefore, 
thou shouldst think so as to believe as certainly, when 
thou receivest Baptism and partakest of the Lord's Sup- 



314 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVI. 

per, that God pities thee, as thou wouldst believe, if God 
were to converse with thee, or to perforin any other 
miracle, which would pertain peculiarly to thee. Signs 
have been instituted for the purpose of exciting faith." 
"As the sight of Christ did not justify Stephen when he 
was about to be murdered, but confirmed the faith by 
which he was justified, so partaking of the Holy Supper 
does not justify, but confirms faith." 

Luther, in the "Babylonian Captivity," says : "In every 
promise, God is accustomed to add a sign, as 1a monu- 
ment or memorial of His promise, whereby it may be the 
more faithfully preserved and may admonish more forc- 
ibly. Thus in connection with the promise to Noah con- 
cerning not again destroying the world by 1a flood, God 
gave His bow in the clouds, by which He said He would 
be mindful of His covenant. To Abraham, after the 
promise of the inheritance of his seed, He gave circum- 
cision as a seal of the righteousness of faith. So to 
Gideon, He gave the sign of the dry and the wet fleece. 
. . . Likewise in the Mass, in this chief promise of all, 
He added as a memorial sign, His own body and His own 
blood, in the bread and wine, as He says : 'Do this in re- 
membrance of me.' So in Baptism He adds to the words 
of the promise the sign of the application of water" (We- 
mar ed., 6 : 547 sq.). 

12. Whose action is that of the Sacraments? 

God's and particularly Christ's, who has instituted and 
commanded their observance, and has promised to work 
through them. "Only He who is the author of grace can 
define the means through which He is willing to confer 
the grace which He freely confers ; for He alone can 
communicate that infinite power to them, through which 
they are qualified to confer grace." 

13. How does a Sacrament differ from a sacrifice? 

In a Sacrament God offers something to man ; in a sac- 



Chap. XXVI.] THE SACRAMENTS. 315 

rifice, man offers something to God. "A Sacrament is a 
ceremony or work, in which God presents to us that which 
the promise annexed to the ceremony offers, as baptism 
is a work, not which we offer to God, but in which God 
baptizes us, i. e., a minister in the place of God; and God 
here offers and presents the remission of sins, according 
to the promise, Mark 16: 16. A sacrifice, on the contrary, 
is a ceremony or work, which we render God in order to 
afford Him honor" (Apology, 262). 

14. What are the three essentials of a Sacrament? 

(a) A divine institution. There must be an express 
and direct command of Christ, directing that it be ob- 
served for all time. No institution prescribed merely by 
the Church, is a Sacrament. Even Apostolic precedent 
for a practice, does not raise it to the rank of Sacraments. 
Appeal must be made to the example and appointment 
of the Lord Jesus. 

(b) An earthly element. The term "element" when 
used in treating of the Sacraments always refers to some- 
thing visible, tangible, corporeal, material. Inaccurate 
writers refer to "the heavenly and earthly elements." But 
there are no "heavenly elements." A Sacrament has a 
visible, material object, prescribed by Christ at its institu- 
tion, which is used as a medium for conveying and apply- 
ing the word of the Sacrament. 

(c) A special heavenly gift, also defined at the institu- 
tion. In both New Testament Sacraments, the forgive- 
ness of sins is promised, offered and communicated with 
the sacramental act. In the Lord's Supper, the Body and 
Blood of Christ are with the elements, as pledges of this 
gift of the forgiveness of sins ; and in both Baptism and 
the Lord's Supper, the word of promise both makes the 
Sacrament and applies its efficacy. Accedit verbnm ad 
clementum, et fit Sacramentum. Neither the element 
without the Word, nor the Word without the element, but 
Word and element united, or rather the element as per- 



316 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVI- 

vaded and energized by the express word of divine ap- 
pointment, constitutes the Sacrament. There is no mag- 
ical power inherent in the elements, even when conse- 
crated. Their office is simply that of an instrument 
through which the divine promise is impressed upon the 
heart and mind of the recipient. 

15. Is this last point so explained in the Confessions? 
The Small Catechism teaches that "the water without 

the Word is simply water, and no baptism," and that "re- 
mission of sins, life and salvation," are imparted in the 
Lord's Supper, not "through the bodily eating and drink- 
ing," but through the words, "Given and shed for you for 
the remission of sins." The Large Catechism says of 
Baptism that "if the Word be taken away, the water is 
the same as that with which the servant cooks" (468).* 
So of the Lord's Supper, p. 477. The Schmalkald Ar- 
ticles define Baptism as "nothing else than the Word of 
God in the water commanded at its institution." 

16. How may this be summed up? 

"There is not one grace in the word of promise, and an- 
other which is tendered in the Sacraments; neither is 
there one promise in the Gospel, and another in the Sacra- 
ments. But the grace is the same, and the word is one 
and the same, except that in the Sacraments, the Word, by 
means of the signs divinely instituted is, because of our 
infirmity, rendered visible, as Augustine says" (Chem- 
nitz, Examen, 243). 

17. Why is Confirmation not reckoned among the 
Sacraments? 

It is without the authority of any command of Christ. 
As an ecclesiastical rite, it has been used with profit ; but 
this is all that can be claimed for it. See Apology, 214 : 6: 
(Compare Chapter XXVII, 34.) 

*Here Calvin agrees with Luther: "Verbo sublato perit tota vis sacra- 
mentorum. Quid enim aliud sunt sacramenta quam Verbi sigilla ? . . Porro 
Verbum promissionem hie significat." On Eph. 5 -.26. 



<Thap. XXVI. ] THE SACRAMENTS. 317 

18. But has not Ordination sacramental validity? 

No. Christ did not command that His ministers be set 
apart by the laving on of hands, neither did He insti- 
tute such rite by His example. There is, indeed, Apos- 
tolic precedent for the formal commissioning of mission- 
aries and pastors in this way (Acts 13:3; I Tim. 4: 14; 
2 Tim. 1 :6) ; but no command that this must always occur. 
It is the call, and not the laying on of hands that makes 
one a minister. Besides this rite has no earthly element. 
The scholastics and Roman teachers are divided as to 
whether it be the hands of the officiating bishop or the 
chrism, or be found in the Sacrament of the eucharist 
which is partaken of in both kinds by the person ordained. 
As to the gift referred to in 1 Tim. 4 : 14 and 2 Tim. 16, 
this is not the forgiveness of sins, but the gifts needed for 
efficiency as a minister of the Gospel. 

19. Does the rank of Sacraments belong to all objects 
having God's command? 

"If among the Sacraments, all things ought to be num- 
bered which have God's command, and to which promises 
have been added, why do we not add prayer, which most 
truly can be called a Sacrament? For it has both God's 
command and very many promises. Alms could also be 
reckoned here" (Apology, 215). 

20. When does the Sacrament actually exist? 

Only in the sacramental action accompanying the pre- 
scribed word ; for that alone is the Sacrament. In Bap- 
tism all that precedes the administration of water in the 
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, 
is only preparatory, and for the purpose of awakening 
and encouraging faith in the word of divine promise 
which is to be thus applied. In the Lord's Supper, the 
consecration effects no change in the elements, but pre- 
pares the hearts and minds of the communicants for the 



3l8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVI. 

reception of what is to be offered them in the Sacrament 
which follows. 

21. To whom does the right to administer the Sacra- 
ments belong ? 

The Power of the Keys, i. e., of administering both 
Word and Sacraments belongs to the Church or congre- 
gation of believers. "For wherever the Church is, there 
is authority to administer the Gospel. . . . Here belong 
the words of Christ which testify that the Keys have 
been given to the Church, and not merely to certain per- 
sons (Matt. 18:20), 'Where two or three are gathered 
together in my name,' etc." (Schmalkald Articles, 350). 

But in order that this right be exercised by the Church, 
the office of the ministry of the Word and Sacraments has 
been instituted. "Where there is therefore a true Church, 
the right to elect and ordain ministers necessarily ex- 
ists" (lb.). 

The Sacraments, therefore, are administered by min- 
isters, not as individuals directly commissioned by divine 
authority, nor as a self-perpetuating order, but as the 
executives of the congregation of believers, who have been 
called and duly recognized as such in whatever way it 
sees fit. As the administration of the Sacraments belongs 
not to believers as individuals, there is no transfer to 
ministers of individual rights, but there is simply the 
designation of those who are to fill an office which belongs 
to a congregation collectively. 

"Of Ecclesiastical Order they teach that no one should 
publicly teach in the Church or administer the Sacraments 
unless he be regularly called" (Augsburg Confession, 
XIV, 345)- 

22. Are there no exceptions? 

It has been the practice of the Lutheran Church to allow 
Lay Baptism in case of extreme necessity, but not to allow 
under any circumstances an exception in regard to the 



Chap. XXVI.] THE SACRAMENTS. 319 

Lord's Supper. The reason for this will be given under 
the treatment of each of the Sacraments. 

23. Upon what does the efficacy of the Sacraments 
depend? 

Not upon the character of the minister, as the Donatists 
taught (1 Cor. 3:7; Rom. 3:3; Matt. 23:2, 3). Nor 
upon his intention, as Rome teaches. For then, just as 
with respect to the character, no one could be sure that he 
had received a Sacrament except by reading the heart 
of ia minister. Nor upon the regularity of his call, how- 
ever important this may be (Heb. 5:4; Rom. 10: 15) ; 
otherwise no one, without examining the credentials of 
the minister, could be sure that he had received a Sacra- 
ment. This would soon involve an entanglement in "end- 
less genealogies." Nor upon the work that is wrought, 
the opus operatnm. For it is not the sacramental action, 
but the Word that accompanies the action, which commu- 
nicates saving grace ; and this Word received, not by the 
body, but by the heart and mind, so as to awaken faith. 
Without faith, "sine bono motn utentis/' no benefit is re- 
ceived from the Sacraments. 

24. How do our Confessions stale this tast point ? 
"They condemn those who teach that the Sacraments 

justify by the outward act, and do not teach that, in the 
use of the Sacraments, faith which believes that sins are 
forgiven, is required" (Augsburg Confession, Art. XII). 

"What need will there be of faith, if the Sacraments 
justify by the outward act {ex opere operato), without a 
good disposition on the part of the one using them?" 
(Apology, 166). 

"We condemn the whole crowd of scholastic doctors, 
who teach that the Sacraments confer grace ex opere 
operato, without a good disposition on the part of the one 
using them, provided he do not place a hindrance in the 
way. This is absolutely a Jewish opinion, to hold that we 



320 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVI. 

are justified by a ceremony, without a good disposition of 
heart." "The promise is useless unless it be received by 
faith. But the Sacraments are the signs of the promises" 
(Apology, 2:6). 

25. Is, therefore, their efficacy depended upon the 
faith of the recipient? "V- •■ 

Be very careful here to distinguish the saving recep- 
tion of their efficacy, from the efficacy itself. The efficacy 
of a medicine is one thing ; the use of the medicine so as 
to be benefited by the efficacy is another. As the efficacy 
of the Sacraments is nothing more than that of the Word 
connected with the Sacraments, all that has been said con- 
cerning the relation of faith to the Word belongs here (see 
Chapters XIX, 8; XXIV, 26). When the efficacy of 
Word and Sacraments encounters man's unbelief and per- 
sistent resistance, their efficacy is not destroyed ; but it is 
transformed from an efficacy of grace to one of judg- 
ment (2 Cor. 2:16; 1 Cor. 11:29). 

26. We repeat the question: Upon what does the effi- 
cacy depend? 

Upon God's appointment and promise. 'The Word by 
which it was instituted and became a Sacrament, does not 
become false, because of the person and his unbelief. For 
he does not say, Tf you believe or if you are worthy, you 
receive my body and blood,' but, 'Take, eat and drink, 
this is my body and blood." No matter whether you be 
worthy or unworthy, you have here His body and blood, 
by virtue of these words which are added to the bread and 
wine. Upon these words rest all our foundation." "We 
approach the Sacrament, in order to receive there a treas- 
ure. Why so? Because the words stand here and give 
us the same" (Large Catechism, 478). (See also 
above, 14.) 

27. Are the Sacraments necessary for salvation? 
Everything that God enjoins, demands recognition and 



Chap. XXVI. ] THE SACRAMENTS. 321 

fulfilment. Of nothing that God has instituted and asked 
us to observe, dare we say that it is unnecessary. Its 
necessity is that of God's command (Necessitas prae- 
cepti) and our obligations to comply (Necessitas debiti). 
But while God binds us, He does not bind Himself to 
these means. According to Mark 16: 16, only he that be- 
lieveth not shall be condemned. Here belongs the saying 
of Bernard : Non defectus, sed contemptus sacramenti 
dam n at. 

28. What is the chief purpose of the Sacraments? 
Here we distinguish between the Sacraments as actions 

of God, and the use of the Sacraments by men ; between 
the divine institution and man's response to and compli- 
ance with, its provision ; between the sacramental and 
the sacrificial side of that which occurs wherever the 
Sacraments are administered. The question before us is, 
what is that which God confers or means to confer by 
His own act. 

The Sacraments, therefore, cannot be acts of worship, 
or means of confessing Christ before men, or of declaring 
the unity that subsists or ought to subsist among Chris- 
tians, or of typifying other Christian virtues. For all 
these pertain to man's reception of the Sacraments, or to 
the sacrificial, instead of the sacramental side of the cere- 
mony. Their chief purpose is well summarized in the 
Augsburg Confession : 

'The Sacraments were ordained, not only to be marks 
of profession, among men, but rather to be signs and 
testimonies of the will of God toward us, instituted to 
awaken and confirm faith in them that use them" (Art. 
XIII). "Through the Word and Sacraments, as through 
instruments, the Holy Ghost is given, who worketh faith, 
where and when it pleaseth God, in them that hear the 
Gospel" (Art. V). 

29. In saying that they e( are signs and testimonies of 



$22 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVI. 

the will of God toward us/' is it meant that these signs 
are the elements of the Sacraments? 

It is the entire Sacrament that constitutes "the sign." 
It is not the water of Baptism that is the sign, but the 
water when taken in connection with the Word. In the 
Lord's Supper, the bread and wine are signs, only in con- 
nection with the Gospel that accompanies them. 

30. Is their influence, then, merely of a didactic 
character? 

They are no merely pictorial or emblematic representa- 
tion of the mode in which God imparts His grace ; but 
they actually "awaken and confirm faith," since the Holy 
Spirit works through the Gospel of which they give assur- 
ance. "God at the same time by the Word and by the rite, 
moves hearts to believe (Rom. 10: 17). But just as the 
Word enters ears, in order to strike hearts, so the rite 
meets the eyes in order to move the hearts" (Apol- 
ogy. 2:4). 

31. Such being the primary, what are the secondary 
ends of the sacraments? 

(a) They are marks of the Church distinguishing it 
from other assemblies. As Christ instituted the Sacra- 
ments, and commended them to the Church, with the in- 
junction to perpetually observe them until His return, the 
Church is to be found only where this divine institution 
is observed. 

(b) They are perpetual memorials of God's interven- 
tion on behalf of His people, and, particularly, of the 
blessings of Redemption. As the Passover was a mem- 
orial to the Israelites (Ex. 12:4), so, in the Lord's Sup- 
per, Christ has left a perpetual memorial of the salvation 
procured through His death (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor. 
11:24-26). Baptism is a remembrance of deliverance 
from the ocean of sin in which our race was lost (1 Peter 



Chap. XXVI.] THE SACRAMENTS. 323 

3 : 20, 21). Not only to the believer, but to the world they 
are constant witnesses of the great facts of Redemption. 

(c) They are indications of the new life expected of 
those who have experienced such deliverance (Rom. 5:4; 
1 Cor. 10: 21). 

(d) They are means whereby the mutual love of Chris- 
tians is promoted in the common use of the same ordin- 
ances (1 Cor. 1 : 17). 

32. Were there Sacraments under the Old Testament? 
The way of salvation under the Old Testament was 

the same as under the New, "the same substance of the 
promise, the same faith, the same grace, the same right- 
eousness, the same salvation and eternal life, in and on 
account of Christ, who was promised in the Old Testa- 
ment as to come, (and was announced in the New Testa- 
ment as having come." The question to be determined 
is as to whether the promise of grace under the Old Tes- 
tament was made exclusively through the audible Word, 
or whether there were not also rites in which it assumed 
a visible form, as in the New Testament Sacraments. The 
answer is that Circumcision and the Passover were such 
rites applying the word of promise individually, and seal- 
ing it by an external action, with a visible element. 

33. Were there not other Old Testament acts that had 
a sacramental character? 

The passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea and 
the eating of the manna in the wilderness are referred to 
in 1 Cor. 9 : 1-4, as having sacramental significance, and as 
figures of the New Testament Sacraments. The cloud 
and the miraculous passage through the sea testified to 
God's love and care for every Israelite journeying towards 
the land of promise. Every drop of spray that touched 
him as he walked between the walls of waters assured 
.him of the divine favor. So the manna was also a pledge 
of God's grace and mercy, and a declaration of the super- 



324 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVL 

natural agencies at the service of those who were content 
to trust in God's promises. Every grain of manna eaten 
brought the certainty of God's promise forcibly to each 
individual. But, unlike Circumcision and the Passover, 
they were only temporary, and were not institutions to be 
observed by the Israelitic Church. They were acts of 
God, but not rites. 

34. But in what do the so-called Sacraments of the 
Old Testament differ from those of the New Testament? 

The former were to be abrogated in course of time ; the 
latter are to be used until the end of the world. The 
former were for Israelites ; the latter are for all nations. 
The former foreshadowed the blessings of the Gospel ; 
the latter proclaimed their presence. The former were 
prenunciative ; the latter annunciative of Christ, as Augus- 
tine declares. The New Testament ordinances only are 
Sacraments in the fullest and clearest sense. 

35. Hozv do the two Sacraments cf the New Testa- 
ment differ? 

Baptism is the Sacrament of initiation ; the Lord's Sup- 
per the Sacrament for the confirmation of faith. Baptism 
is for the beginning of new spiritual life ; the Lord's Sup- 
per is for its nourishment. Baptism is administered but 
once to an individual (Eph. 4:5); the Lord's Supper, 
according to 1 Cor. 11:20, is to be frequently repeated. 
Baptism is retrospective in its emphasis referring partic- 
ularly to deliverance from the former life of sin and 
death ; the Lord's Supper is prospective, being a prepara- 
tion for our last hour. Baptism is recognized, upon the 
basis of John 3:5; Titus 3:5:1 Peter 3:21, as of higher 
necessity than the Lord's Supper. 



Chap. XXVII. ] OF HOLY BAPTISM. 325 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

OF HOLY BAPTISM. 

1. Define Baptism. 

A divinely instituted action, enjoined upon the Church 
until the end of time, in which, with the application of 
water, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost, the Gospel promise of the forgiveness of 
sins is offered to every one baptized, and is most certainly 
imparted to every one who believes. 

2. How does Baptism meet the three requirements of 
a Sacrament above given {Chapter XXVI, 14)? 

It has a divine institution, an earthly element and a 
heavenly gift. 

3. When was it instituted? 

By our Lord Jesus Christ, when His sacrificial offering 
for sin had been completed, and, having risen from the 
dead, He assumed the full exercise of His Kingly Office. 
The institution looked forward to the gift of the Holy 
Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, through which its admin- 
istration by the Church was to be rendered efficacious. 

4. Where is the institution recorded? 

Matt. 28:18-20 — "And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, 
All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye, 
therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever 1 have commanded you; and lo, i am with 
you always, even unto the end of the world." 

Mark 16:15, 16 — "And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized 
shall be saved; and he that believeth not shall be condemned.' v. 20 — 
"And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with 
them and confirming the word with signs following." 

5. But John certainly baptized before this? 

Luther calls John's baptism "the vestibule to Christian 
Baptism." It was a sacred action individually sealing the 
word of promise with an earthly element, but without the 
certification of a divine institution and serving only a 



326 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

provisional purpose. It has some sacramental features, 
being "a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins/' 
But John's preaching was not concerning the Christ who 
had come and fulfilled the law for man, but concerning 
the Christ who was to come (John 1:30). He 
himself contrasted his baptism with that of Christ 
(Matt. 3:11; John 1:33). The Holy Spirit had not 
vet been given in New Testament fulness (John 7:39), 
(see Chapter XVI, 3-5), and Acts 19: 2-6 is irreconcilable 
with the theory that the two rites are identical. "Both 
baptisms signified the same thing, but with this distinction 
that John's was a testimony of grace that was yet to be 
preached, while Christ's baptism was a testimony of grace 
that had already been conferred" (Melanchthon, "Loci 
Communes"). 

John, however, was the greatest of the Old Testament 
prophets, and even more than a prophet, because he could 
point to the Lamb of God, as he walked before those to 
whom he preached (John 1 : 29). Chemnitz terms John's 
baptism, therefore, "a transient sacrament." 

Our authority, however, for the baptism which the 
Church employs rests not upon John's example and 
preaching, nor upon that of the disciples of Jesus who 
continued for a time the same rite (John 4: 12), but solely 
upon Christ's parting command. By it He raised a rite 
which thus far was of only temporary significance, to the 
rank of a Sacrament, and in so doing made of it a new 
institution. 

6. What is Baptism according to the words of insti- 
tution f 

An introduction into the new life that comes from the 
revelation of God, as Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

J. Hozu is this established? 

By the fact that, according to Matt. 28: 19; Acts 8: 16; 
19:5; Rom. 6:3;! Cor. 1 : 13 ; 10 : 2 ; Gal. 3 : 27, Baptism 



Chap. XXVII.] OF HOLY BAPTISM. ■■ 327 

is "into the name." It is an action directed towards a 
certain goal, i. e., to self-surrender, ownership, obedience, 
communion with the name of Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost (see Chapter II, 13:15). Elsewhere, as Acts 
2:38; 10:48, it is "in the name," i. e., "by authority of." 
It is Baptism into the One Name, which all three share. 
Baptism is said, in some passages, to be "in the name" 
or "into the name of the Lord Jesus," or "into Christ 
Jesus," or "into Christ" (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 19:5; 
10 : 48 ; Rom. 6:3; Gal. 3 : 27). This means, through Bap- 
tism to enter into life-communion with all that Jesus 
is and has done and to surrender oneself, with implicit 
faith and obedience, to the revelation of God that has been 
made in and through Jesus Christ, as the Israelites were 
"baptized into Moses" (1 Cor. 10:2). "He is baptized 
into a whole Christ, and so also into His death. It is just 
as if, at that moment, Christ suffered, died, and were 
buried for such a man, and such a man suffered, died, 
were buried with Christ" (Bengel). 

8. Who is it that baptises? 

The opinion is readily entertained that the external act 
is that simply of the minister, while it is only the inner 
act which attends the external and that imparts grace, 
which is of God. Of this Luther says : "Be on your guard 
against making such distinction as to ascribe the external 
work to man, and the internal to God, but ascribe both to 
God alone, and regard the person of the one ministering 
as nothing more than a vicarious instrument of God, 
through which God in heaven applies the water with His 
own hands, and promises forgiveness of sins, speaking 
to thee, with man's voice, through the mouth of the min- 
ister" ("Babylonian Captivity," Erl. ed., 5:60 sq.). 

9. What is the.,ccirthly element? ,.,,,. 

The most common and readily accessible material ob- 
ject in the world. Neither the sand of the desert, nor the 



328 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

soil of the earth, nor the dust of the street, nor the leaves 
of the trees, nor the grass of the meadows, is as common 
or as universally procurable as water. More than two- 
thirds of the surface of the globe is covered by it, while 
the remaining third is honeycombed by subterranean 
streams and pierced everywhere by springs and currents, 
large and small, that carry it into the remotest regions. 
The atmosphere holds it in a rarefied form, and periodi- 
cally precipitates it in abundant measure. In Baptism, 
God makes the most common thing the vehicle of His 
richest grace. 

10. Is there no prescription as to the quality f 
None whatever. All that is required is that it be water. 
But whether this water be clear or clouded, pure or im- 
pure, cold or warm, filtered or distilled, running or stag- 
nant, from the Jordan or the Mississippi, caught from the 
clouds or taken from the ocean, is a miatter of absolute in- 
difference. But there must be water (John 3:5; Acts 
8:38; Eph. 5:26). 

n. Is there no prescription as to the quantity? 

None whatever. The attention is withdrawn from 
anxiety concerning such externalities to the word of 
promise, which is the chief thing in the Sacrament. If 
the validity of the rite depended upon the amount of 
water, conscience might readily be distressed if there were 
doubt as to whether the person were completely covered 
by the stream, or whether by accident some portion of the 
body had been left exposed. If insistence is placed upon 
such external circumstance, then others could readily be 
suggested as necessary to make the correspondence with 
New Testament precedents complete. 

12. Is Immersion a valid method of baptism ? 

Not all the arguments urged by immersionists can be 
admitted' as proving in particular instances that this was 
the method practiced, as e. g., when the baptized were said 



Chap. XXVII.] OF HOLY BAPTISM. 329 

to have "gone into," or to have "come out of the water/' 
For how does this prove the total submergence of the 
body in the water? Nevertheless there are passages, as 
Rom. 6:4; Col. 2: 12, which seem to refer to immersion. 
The practice of the early Church clearly testifies to going 
into the water and to running water, by preference, as a 
common mode, falling in as it did with Oriental usages, 
as to bathing. It is impossible, however, to prove that it 
was complete submersion. 

13. But does this prove that it zvas the only mode? 
No. The term baptism is used in Mark 7:3, 4, of the 

washing of cups and vessels and tables ; in Luke 1 1 : 38, of 
wiashing before taking meals, which could not have been 
immersion ; and of the sprinkling of the Israelites as they 
passed through the way opened in the Red Sea, by the 
cloud from above and the spray from the walls of water 
on either side (1 Cor. 10:2). Neither can the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit be conceived of as an immersion into 
the Spirit ; but, on the contrary, must be referred to His 
being poured forth upon the disciples from above. 

14. Hozv early do ztfe find the justification of Sprink- 
ling or Pouring, as a mode of Baptism ? 

In the earliest of the uninspired writings of the Chris- 
tian Church, 'The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles." 
The words are: "Pour water upon the head thrice, in the 
name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit" (Chap- 
ter VII). 

15. What is the heavenly gift? 

(a) The Triune God ; for we are baptized into the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (see 
above, 6, 7). 

(b) The Word of God. 

Eph. 5:26 — "Having cleansed it with the washing ot water with the 
word." 

(c) The Holy Spirit. 

John 3:5 — "Except one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom of God." 



330 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

(d) The Forgiveness of Sins. 

Acts 2:38 — "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of 
Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift 
of the Holy Ghost." Cf. Chapter xxvi 9 and 14. 

All these concur and are combined hi the statement, 
that the heavenly gift is the Word of God as the organ, 
through which the Holy Spirit applies the merits of 
Christ, on account of which we have forgiveness of sins, 
and thus introduces one into communion with the Tri- 
une God.* 

16. By whom is Baptism administered? 

This question has been answered in general under 
Chapter XXVI, 21. The words of institution of Baptism 
were spoken to the eleven Apostles (Matt. 28: 16) ; but 
that the administration was not restricted to them, is 
clear from the fact that it is an ordinance that is to be 
observed until the end of time (v. 20). Paul seems to 
have been baptized by Ananias (Acts 9:18, cf. Gal. 
1 : 17). Like the Power of the Keys it belongs to the en- 
tire Church (Matt. 18: 17-20), and is administered by 
those who have been called as the Church's official ex- 
ecutives (1 Cor. 4: 1). 

17. Does the validity of Baptism depend upon the reg- 
ularity of the administrator's calif 

No ; for then the attention would be withdrawn from 
the word to matters that are purely external, and con- 
science could never be satisfied, until it could prove by the 
surest vouchers, the regularity of the external succession 
of those from whom they received baptism. While men 
are responsible to God for having acted without a regular 
call, God uses their ministry to bring His Word to men. 
The only test, therefore, of the validity of Baptism, is 



*Some Lutheran theologians press the analogy between the two Sacra- 
ments to such extent, as to insist that there must be in Baptism that which 
corresponds to the 'Body and Blood' of Christ in the Holy Supper. The 
most convenient summary of the discussion is in Baier, pp. 526-538. 



Chap. XXVII.] of holy baptism. 331 

that which can always be made, viz., as to whether the 
essentials of the Sacrament have been observed, i. e., the 
use of the element and the words of institution. 

18. Why did not our Lord administer Baptism? 

The usual answer is, because a difference would thus 
have been made between those, whom He would have 
baptized by His own hands and those whom He would 
have baptized through the hands of His ministers. But 
beside this, it must not be forgotten, that the period for 
Christian Baptism did not come until after our Lord's as- 
cension, and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 

19. How do we explain Paul's -declaratior that he ivas 
sent to preach and not to baptize (i Cor. i: 17) ? 

Paul was both an apostle and a minister like other min- 
isters. As a minister, he baptized (1 Cor. 1 : 14-16). But 
his chief work was that of the apostolate, to give forth 
his apostolic witness for all times and places. No pecu- 
liar spiritual endowment was needed to baptize ; but such 
endowment was needful for preaching. The relation of 
baptism to preaching was that of the seal to the letter. 

20. Can no one baptize except a regularly called 
minister? 

In case of imminent peril of death the Lutheran 
Church allows lay baptism. The usual argument is that 
if God approved the act of circumcision by Zipporah, al- 
though done in wrath, so that the life of her child was 
spared (Ex. 4: 25), He may be presumed under the New 
Testament much more to favor an exception to the regular 
rule concerning baptism, when it cannot be had elsewhere, 
and its necessity is so urgent (John 3: 5). 

"In case of necessity, even a layman absolves and be- 
comes the pastor of another ; as Augustine narrates the 
story of two Christians in a ship, one of whom baptized 
the catechumen, who, after baptism, then absolved the 
baptizer" (Schmalkald Articles, 350). 



3$2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

21. How is the necessity of such departure from the 
rule safeguarded? 

The Churches in which it is authorized prescribe for 
its public announcement and ratification, not that this is 
necessary for its validity, but to protect against its unre- 
stricted use. Lay Baptism, without urgent necessity, is 
still Baptism, however culpable the administrator may be 
for disturbing the regular order of the Church. 

22. Who are io be baptized? 

Not inanimate objects, as bells or ships, but only sinful 
men, who having been born in sin, are capable of regen- 
eration (John 3:5, 6). All such, without distinction of 
race, station, sex or age, are proper subjects of Baptism, 
provided they comply with the prescribed conditions. 

Matt. 28:19, a s shown, under 4; also Gal. 3:27, 28 — "For as many ot you 
as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There can be neither 
Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor tree, there can be no male 
and female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus.'' 

The condition has its explanation in the fact that God's 
richest blessings ought not to be offered where they will 
surely be abused, and increase the guilt and condemna- 
tion of the recipient. 

23. The only persons concerning whose right to Bap- 
tism there seems to be any difference of opinion, are little 
children. Give, therefore, a somewhat fuller argument 
on this subject. 

(a) Infants need baptism. They are born in a state of 
sin, and cannot enter the Kingdom of God unless they 
be regenerated. 

John 3:6 — "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh." Rom. 5:12 — 
"Death passed unto all men, for that all sinned." Eph. 2:1 — "Ye were 
dead through your trespasses and sins." v. 3 — "And were by nature chil- 
dren of wrath." The Greek pronoun "Us" of John 3:5 is very emphatic 
and exclusive: "Except one be born ot water and the Spirit, he cannot 
enter into the kingdom ot God." 

But as we learn from Matt. 18: 14, "It is not the will 
of your Father who is in heaven, that one of these little 
ones perish," it must be God's will that they meet the con- 



Chap. XXVII.] of holy baptism. 333 

ditions through which they are delivered from their sin- 
ful state; and this is through baptism. 

(b) Christ Himself asserts their rights. 

Matt. 19:14 — "For to such belongeth the kingdom of heaven." 

They have, therefore, admittance to the portal of the 
Kingdom of Heaven, which, (according to John 3:5, is 
Baptism. 

(c) The promise of the forgiveness of sins and of the 
gift of the Holy Ghost is theirs. 

Acts 2:38, 39 — "Repent ye, and be baptized every one ot you in the 
name of Jesus Christ unto the remission ot your sins; and ye shall receive 
the gift of the Holy Ghost. For to you is the promise and to your chil- 
dren." 

(d) From the capacity of infants for faith and its fruits 
(Matt. 18: 2, 3, 6; Is. 8: 2; cf. Matt. 21 : 15 ; Luke 1 : 15, 
41, 44). (Concerning Infant Faith, see above, Chapter 
XXI, 15-18.) 

(e) From the universal command for baptism. (See 
above, under 4.) With this command, unless children be 
excluded by some other command, the duty of baptizing 
them is clear. If children are to be excluded from bap- 
tism, because they are not mentioned explicitly, then 
women, on the same ground, must be excluded from the 
Lord's Supper. 

(f) From the relation of baptism to circumcision, ren- 
dering it unnecessary that, where this was understood, 
they should be mentioned. When God made His covenant 
with Abraham, He expressly commianded that children 
should be admitted into His Church. For this, circum- 
cision was the initiatory rite (Gen. 17: 12). But circum- 
cision, as such initiatory rite, has been superceded by bap- 
tism (Col. r: 11, 12). 

(g) From the apostolic practice of the baptism of en- 
tire families, as that of Lydia (Acts 16: 15), of the Phil- 
ippian jailer (Acts 16:33), of Stephanas (1 Cor. 1: 16). 
It is improbable that these households were composed 
entirelv of adults. 



334 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

24. Is this a: tested also by the practice of the Church 
in the earliest period after the Apostles? 

Among the Fathers, there is not a single voice against 
the validity and apostolic origin of infant baptism. Origen, 
born in A. D. 185, calls it "an apostolic tradition.'' When 
in the Pelagian controversy, Augustine urged the usage 
of Infant Baptism as an argument for Original Sin, Pe- 
lagius, instead of assailing it, answered that children were 
baptized, not for what they then needed, but for what they 
would need hereafter. The opponents of Infant Baptism 
are unable, therefore, to find any period in the history of 
the Church, in which they can prove that it did not exist. 

25. But are not the children of Christian parents al- 
ready in covenant relations to God, in virtue of their birth? 

We who have been born Israelites, says Paul in Eph. 
2:1, were dead through trespasses and sins, even as others. 
Nevertheless it is true, as a recent theologian has put it, 
that "children whose parents are Christian have the pre- 
paratory consecration of a Christian family spirit, and are 
from the beginning under the influence of the Holy 
Spirit" (Rohnert). They are children of devout and 
constant prayer. Hence the statement of 

1 Cor. 7:14 — "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and 
the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother; else were your children 
unclean, but now are they holy." 

This, however, is an external holiness. They are 
brought within the sphere, in which the Means of Grace 
are administered, and through them, the Holy Spirit 
given. But that the reference is not yet to regeneration, 
may be inferred from the fact that the holiness of the 
children is of the same kind as the "sanctification" of the 
unbelieving husband or wife. Their covenant privilege, 
prior to baptism and faith, is found in access to the Means 
of Grace. The covenant is not actually concluded until 
then, although commenced. 

26. What is the effect of Baptism? 



Chap. XXVII.] of holy baptism. 335 

Its immediate effect is Regeneration and Renovation, as 
is clearly taught in Titus 3:5; John 3:5. (See above, 
Chapter XXI, 12; XXIII, 11.) The ultimate end is sal- 
vation and eternal life, as is taught in Mark 16:16; 
1 Peter 3 : 21. 

27. Are all the baptized saved? 

No more than all hearers of the Word. The objective 
efficacy of word and Sacrament, when not appropriated 
by faith confers no benefit. (See Chapter XXVI, 25.) 
Faith also which has been both the effect of baptism and 
has received its blessings, may be cast aside. (See Chap- 
ter XVII, 36.) The doctrines of baptismal grace, on the 
one hand, and of the inamissibility and the irresistibility 
of grace, on the other hand, are absolutely irreconcilable. 

28. Has Baptism the same relation to faith in all its 
subjects? 

To infants it comes, prior to faith, to bring them the 
assurance of God's grace and apply the Gospel. (See 
Chapter XXI, 15-18). "We bring the child in the pur- 
pose and hope, that it may believe, and we pray that God 
may grant it faith ; but we do not baptize it upon that, but 
solely upon the command of God" (Large Catechism, 

473). 

In adults, it is a means of confirming and strengthen- 
ing faith which has been received previously through the 
hearing of the Gospel. 

Acts 2:41 — "They then that received his word, were baptized. 8:12 — 
"When they believed Philip preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom 
of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized." (See also 
Chapter XXI, 10, 11.) 

29. But how are the difficulties concerning the possi- 
bility of infant regeneration and infant faith met? 

Lest the argument of Lutheran theologians may be re- 
garded as prejudiced, we refer to Calvin : 

'How,' it is inquired, 'are infants regenerated, who 
have no knowledge either of good or evil?' We reply, 



336 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

that the work of Gocl is not yet without existence, because 
it is not observed or understood by us. Now it is cer- 
tain that some infants are saved ; and that they are previ- 
ously regenerated by the Lord, is beyond all doubt. For 
if they are born in a state of corruption, it is necessary for 
them to be purified before they be admitted into the King- 
dom of God. . . . What do we require more when the 
Judge Himself declareth that there is no entrance into the 
heavenly life, except for those who are born again? And, 
to silence all objectors, by sanctifying John the Baptist in 
his mother's womb, he exhibited an example of what he 
was able to do for others." "But our opponents say, 
'Faith cometh by hearing,' of which they have not yet 
acquired the use, and cannot be capable of knowing God. 
But they do not consider that when the apostle makes 
hearing the source of faith, he only describes the ordinary 
economy and dispensation of God, which He generally ob- 
serves in the calling of His people ; but does, not prescribe 
a perpetual rule for Him, precluding His employment of 
any other method ; which He has certainly employed in 
the calling of many, to whom He has given the knowl- 
edge of Himself in an internal manner, by the illumination 
of His Spirit, without the intervention of any preaching. 
But, as they think, it would be so great absurdity for any 
knowledge of God to be given infants, to whom Moses 
denies the knowledge of good and evil, I would beg them 
to inform me, what danger can result from our affirming 
that they already receive some portion of that grace, of 
which they will ere long enjoy the full abundance? For 
if the plenitude of life consists in the perfect knowledge 
of God — when some of them whom death removes from 
the present state in their earliest infancy, pass into eter- 
nal life, they are certainly admitted to the immediate con- 
templation of the presence of God. 

As the Lord, therefore, will illumine them with the full 
splendor of His countenance in heaven, why may He not 



Chap. XXVII.] of holy baptism. 337 

also, if such be His pleasure, irradiate them with some 
faint rays of it already in the present life; especially if He 
does not deliver them from all ignorance before He liber- 
ates them from the prison of the body ? Not that I would 
hastily affirm them to be endued with the same faith which 
we experience in ourselves, or at all to possess a similar 
knowledge of faith, which I would prefer leaving in sus- 
pense" (Institutes, Book IV, Chapter XVI, 17-19). 

30. But cannot this doctrine be greatly abased? 

Undoubtedly ; particularly if more stress is laid upon 
the inner change effected in infant baptism than upon the 
external word and promise of God which makes the bap- 
tism "a gracious water of life/' There is a tendency to 
regard the grace of God as given "because of" the inner 
change (i. e., propter fidem) rather than because of the 
merits of Christ gratuitously offered through the Word 
and Sacraments. Here the various points involved in 
the full treatment of Justification by Faith must be kept 
in mind, and its distinctions between the meritorious and 
the instrumental causes be accurately observed. As in 
regard to Justification in general, so also here, we must 
look away from our faith and from all that is in us, even 
though it be the blessed work of the Holy Spirit, as our 
Regeneration and our Renewal, solely and entirely to the 
objective work of Christ for us and His objective word 
and promise to us. This, after all, is the principal thing 
in our baptism. The all important matter is not that in 
infancy our hearts by God's grace were endowed with a 
faint spark of spiritual life, but that the word and prom- 
ise brought us then are offered us anew every day of our 
lives through the covenant which God then made with us. 
With all confidence, we can leave to Him the manner in 
which He applied and fulfilled the promise then made, as 
well as the manner in which this works in us today and 
will work until it reaches its complete fruition in another 



3$8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

world. Nowhere more than in Baptism is man taught to 
realize his own helplessness in spiritual things, and the 
sole efficacy of divine grace. 

31. Is ihc importation of the efficacy of Baptism con- 
fined to the moment of its administration? 

The efficacy of Baptism consisting in the word of prom- 
ise which it communicates, is reapplied with every re- 
membrance of one's baptism. The assurance of what was 
brought one in his baptism is a never-failing fountain of 
encouragement, consolation and spiritual strength. It is 
the seal of the covenant of grace which God made with 
us once and forever, and which thus is always in force 
upon the condition then unalterably fixed. 

Is. 54:10 — "For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed: 
but my lovingkindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my cov- 
enant of peace be removed." 2 Tim. 2:13 — "It we are faithless, he abideth 
faitniul; for he cannot deny himself." 

32. But what comfort does this afford, if zve have 
broken its conditions? 

Here let Luther answer : "Our baptism abides forever ; 
and even though some one should fall from it and sin, we 
nevertheless always have access thereto. . . . Repent- 
ance is nothing else than a return to baptism. . . . Our 
baptism is not something past, which we can no longer 
use after we have fallen into sin." Referring to the error 
of Jerome that after the ship of baptism has foundered 
and gone down in the sea of sin, penance is provided as a 
plank on which we may again be delivered, he continues : 
"The ship never breaks, for it is an institution of God. 
... It happens indeed that we slip and fall out of the 
ship. Yet if any one fall out, let him see to it that he 
return" (Large Catechism, 475). 

"The people should be admonished to reflect upon their 
baptism, and be instructed that it means that God takes 
them into His favor not only in childhood, but also 
throughout their entire lives. Baptism is, therefore, not 



Chap. XXVII.] of holy baptism. 339 

only a sign for children, but it urges and admonishes 
adults also to repent'' (Melanchthon in German Visitation 
Articles of 1527). "Let the pastors teach that the effect 
of baptism ought to last throughout the entire life, i. e., 
that we ought always to repent and, at the same time, to 
believe thiat God wishes to forgive us" (Latin copy of 
same document). So in that edition of the Loci Com- 
munes, which Luther said, with complimentary extrava- 
gance, was worthy of being regarded canonical, Melanch- 
thon says : "I venture to say that no more efficacious con- 
solation can be offered the dying than the mention of this 
sacrament, viz., if they be admonished of baptism, and be 
assured that in it they received a seal of the divine prom- 
ise, that they may certainly know that God will lead them 
through death to life. Suppose Moses had baptized the 
Israelites before they entered the waters. Ought he not 
then to have admonished them, while they were passing 
through the midst of the sea, concerning the sign which 
they had received as to the issue of what was transpiring, 
and to have urged them to remember that this sign was 
given them for the very purpose of protecting against any 
doubt that they would be saved? Baptism has the same 
use in the mortifying of our sinful flesh. It admonishes 
the terrified conscience concerning the remission of sins, 
and assures it of God's grace, so as to dispel all tempta- 
tions to despair. Just as long as this struggle lasts, is 
there need of this sign. But since the former is not com- 
pleted until the old man entirely perishes, there is perpet- 
ual need of this sign throughout our entire life, that it 
may console conscience in this constant mortification. 
Hence it is apparent that these signs are nothing but mem- 
orials, whereby faith may be exercised." 

33. Can Baptism be repeated? 

No. For there is but one baptism (Eph. 4:5). God's 
covenant once made remains God's covenant forever. 



34-0 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXVII. 

"Though we were a hundred times put under water, it 
would, nevertheless, be but one baptism" (lb.). 

34. Is there not a renewal of the covenant in Con- 
firmation ? 

Baptism is God's act. Confirmation is on the one hand, 
man's formal public recognition of the significance of his 
baptism, and, on the other, the Church's attestation that, 
since this significance is recognized, the person should be 
admitted to the Lord's Supper. 

35. In what sense is Baptism necessary ? 

This question and its answer have already been antici- 
pated (see Chapter XXVI, 27). Nothing that God has 
enjoined can be a matter of indifference. 

36. What does the Augsburg Confession mean when 
it condemns the Anabaptists for teaching that children 
are saved without baptism? 

It must be interpreted historically. The statement is 
directed against the depreciation of Infant Baptism by the 
Anabaptists who denied its validity and efficacy, and, 
therefore, that it is in iany sense a means of saving grace. 
It does not deal with the possibilities of salvation where 
baptism is not accessible or attainable. We dare not limit* 
God's power and mercy by the boundaries of what He 
has imposed upon us. 

37. Has God anyzvhere promised His saving grace 
except in the observance of the provisions of the Order 
of Salvation which He has revealed to us? 

Nowhere. But the universality of redemption (Chap- 
ter XIV, 12) and of His will for the salvation of all 
(Chapter IX, 10), especially of little children (Matt. 
18: 14), warrants us in entertaining the hope that God 
has His own way of communicating His regenerating 
grace to those from whom it is denied by the unbelief of 
parents and the indifference of the Church. 



Chap. XXVII. ] OF HOLY BAPTISM. 34I 

38. What has been the prevalent opinion of Lutheran 
theologians on this point ? 

'The children of believing parents, accidentally de- 
prived of baptism, we believe are regenerated and saved 
by the extraordinary grace of God" (Baier). "For the 
necessity of baptism is not absolute. On our "part, we are 
under obligations to receive baptism. Nevertheless an 
extraordinary action of God is not to be denied in infants 
offered in prayer to Christ by godly parents and the 
Church, and who die before there can be opportunity for 
Baptism ; since God does not bind His grace and efficacy 
to Baptism in such a way as not to be able and willing, in 
case of necessity to act extraordinarily" (Gerhard). 

39. Is the same affirmed of the children of unbeliev- 
ing parents? 

Above, under Question 25, the peculiar relation of the 
children of believing parents to God's grace and promise, 
has already been treated. This, in connection with the 
promises made to prayer, afford the presumption of a 
special intervention of God on their behalf. But since 
there are no such promises concerning the children of 
unbelieving parents, we are not authorized to entertain 
the hope of their salvation, except with considerable 
qualification. "The unbaptized infants of unbelievers we 
commit to the divine judgment" (Baier). See 1 Cor. 
5 : 12. This, however, does not exclude the hope that God 
may also impart to them His grace; although, in the lack 
of revelation on the subject, this cannot be accepted as 
an article of faith. 

40. In its administration, what are the essentials of 
Baptism? 

Only the words of institution and the application of the 
water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of 
the Holy Ghost. All else is only preparatory and supple- 
mentary to what is properly speaking the baptism, and 



342 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

has the authority only of Church rites, which, while they 
are not to be arbitrarily changed, are not to be used ex- 
cept as they promote edification. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

OF THE HOLY SUPPER. 

1. What is the Lord's Supper? 

The second Sacrament of the New Testament in w T hich 
in connection with bread and wine, the true body and 
blood of Christ are offered and received by all communi- 
cants ; to the comfort and salvation of those who accept 
in faith the promise of the Gospel attending it, and to the 
condemnation of all unbelieving communicants. 

2. From what passages of Scripture is the doctrine of 
the Lord's Supper to be learned? 

Matt. 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19, 20; 
1 Cor. 11 : 23-29. These are the sedes doctrinae, i. e., the 
passages in which the doctrine is explicitly and directly 
treated. John 6 : 53-58 does not refer to the Lord's Sup- 
per, but to the spiritual appropriation of Christ by faith. 
If it would apply to the Lord's Supper, we would have to 
dispense entirely with bread and wine, as it contains no 
allusion to any earthly elements ; and we would be forced 
to deny the possibility of the salvation of any, except 
through the use of this Sacrament, and, with others, all 
baptized children, who had not been admitted to the Holy 
Supper would be lost.* 

3. What are the elements? 

(a) Bread. One of the most widely used and generally 
obtainable kinds of food. There is no need for a scru- 
pulous regard to the particular kind of bread. It may be 



*See Luther Erlangen Ed. (second edition) 15:368 or First hd. 12:368; 
Chemnitz, "Fundamenta Sacrae Coenae," 80-84. 



Chap. XXVIII.] of the holy supper. 343 

wheaten, or rye or rice ; it may be leavened or unleavened ; 
kneaded or unkneaded ; salted or sweetened or neither; 
cut or broken ; administered in crumbs or in wafers. All 
this is of no more importance than the color or tempera- 
ture of the water of baptism. The general use of wafers 
by the Lutheran Church has been determined more by 
convenience and readiness of disposing of those that re- 
main after a communion, than by any other reason. The 
breaking of the bread does not belong, as has been taught 
in the Reformed Church, to the sacramental action. The 
use of several kinds or forms of bread at the same time, 
brings to the Lord's Table the reminiscences of former 
controversies, and should not occur. 

(b) Wine, or the fermented juice of the grape. In a 
vine-growing country, this was a common drink, readily 
obtained, and nevertheless highly esteemed. Our Lord 
had no intention, in the institution of this ordinance, to 
torment the consciences of His followers with legal pre- 
scriptions concerning an exact conformity in all respects 
with the minute details of the externals in the first Sup- 
per. As in baptism, so also here, the chief thing in the 
Sacrament is the word of the Gospel which it applies ; so 
that neither the quantity nor the quality nor the color of 
the wine is in any way significant. It is important, how- 
ever, that in the choice of the wine, there be no reflection 
cast upon that which was used by Christ in the original 
institution. 

4. What is the heavenly gift? 

The Body and Blood of Christ, as the words of insti- 
tution declare. 

5. But are these words to be interpreted literally ? 
Our first argument for a literal interpretation rests 

upon the hermeneutical principle that the burden of 
proof rests upon the advocates of a figurative interpreta- 
tion. A declaration is presumed to be intended for literal 



344 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIIL 

application unless sufficient reasons are alleged to the 
contrary. Those parts of Scripture containing divine 
commands, promises, warnings, threats, and articles of 
faith, must be guarded with the utmost care from all sug- 
gestions, which, under the pretext of a figure, would de- 
prive them of their real force. Here we must remember 
this important fact : There is no divine command, promise 
or article of faith that is not expressed somewhere in 
Holy Scripture in clear, distinct and proper, as distin- 
guished from figurative terms. Every figurative passage 
must have the key of its interpretation in one that is 
literal. 

But if these words be interpreted figuratively, the doc- 
trine of the Lord's Supper is without a single support in 
any literal declaration of Holy Scripture. The explana- 
tion comes entirely from man's ingenuity outside of the 
Scriptures, and not from them. 

6. What warning does Scripture give concerning the 
effort to explain away zvhat God has declared? 

The fall of our first parents who were induced to be- 
lieve that God could not mean that which His words said 
(Gen. 3: 1-5). 

7. What example is commended for the opposite of 
this? 

That of Abraham (Rom. 4: 18-20), who had many- 
motives to tempt him to explain away the force of God's 
command. "As when Abraham heard God's word con- 
cerning offering his son, although indeed he had cause 
enough for disputing as to whether the words should be 
understood according to the letter or%vith a moderate or 
mild interpretation, since they conflicted not only with all 
reason, and with divine and natural law, but also with the 
chief article of faith concerning the promised seed, 
Christ, who was to be born of Isaac ; yet, as before, when 
the promise of the blessed seed from Isaac was given 



Chap. XXVIII. ] of the holy supper. 345 

him (although it appeared to his reason impossible), he 
gave God the honor of truth, and most confidently be- 
lieved that God could do what He promised ; so he also 
here understands and believes God's word and command 
plainly and simply, as they sound, according to the letter, 
and resigns the entire matter to the divine omnipotence 
and wisdom, which he knows has many more modes and 
ways to fulfil the promise of the seed from Isaac, then he, 
with his blind reason, can comprehend" (Formula of 
Concord, 609). 

8. What would follow from our rejection of a literal 
interpretation because of our inability to understand how 
this could be possible? 

Our Lord referred Nicodemus to the mystery of the 
wind as one his reason could not explain (John 3:8). So 
Job was overwhelmed with a catalogue of mysteries fill- 
ing four chapters (Job 38-42), when he yielded to a 
similar scepticism. What will become of the doctrine of 
the Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the Resurrection from 
the dead, if we start out with the assumption that we will 
accept nothing except what we can understand and ex- 
plain? Would there be any faith whatever if such a 
standard were exacted? 

9. Are there no other arguments for the literal mean- 
ing of these zvordsf 

In the Lord's Supper a new and hitherto unknown or- 
dinance was introduced. The use of figurative language 
under such circumstances, would be highly improbable. 
Add to this the fact that as a Sacrament of the New Testa- 
ment, it replaces a rite or so-called Sacrament of the Old 
Testament, which is related to it as shadow to substance 
(Col. 2: 17; Heb. 10: 1). But if we interpret the words 
figuratively, we have nothing more than one shadow suc- 
ceeding another ; and, what is still more remarkable, a 
less clear figure of the suffering Redeemer replacing a 



346 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

far more striking one, for the Paschal Lamb represents 
the suffering Lamb of God far more aptly than does the 
sacramental bread. 

10. What is the argument from the testamentary char- 
acter of the Holy Supper? 

Nowhere as in a last will and testament, are clearness 
and plainness and simplicity, so carefully studied, or are 
mere rhetorical expressions so rigidly excluded. In draw- 
ing up wills, every effort is used to avoid ambiguities 
which might leave room for future misunderstandings. 
Hence the style is intensely literal. In answer to this, the 
last words of Jacob, Moses and David are cited as being 
decidedly rhetorical and abounding in figures. But this 
is explained by the fact that these figurative passages are 
not testamentary, but prophetical. Prophecy deals largely 
in figures. 

11. Is there any variation in which the words are 
reported? 

This can best be answered thus : 

Matt. 26:26 — L "Take, eat; this is my body." 

Mark 14:22 — "Take ye; this is my body." 

Luke 22:19 — "This is my body which is given for you; this do in re- 
membrance of me." 

1 Cor. 11:24 — "This is my body which is for you; this do in remembrance 
of me." 

Matt. 26:27, 28 — "Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the coven- 
ant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins." 

Mark 14:24 — "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out 
for many." 

Luke 22:20 — "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, even that which 
is poured out for you." 

1 Cor. 11:25 — "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; this do as 
oft as ye drink it in remembrance of me." 

The substantial harmony is remarkable. There are 
just such variations in minor matters as might be ex- 
pected of independent and truthful reporters whose indi- 
viduality is not suppressed by inspiration. But in that 
which defines the Sacrament, there is no variation what- 
ever as to the presence of the body of Christ, while the 
variation in the references to the blood involves no contra- 



Chap. XXVIII. ] of the holy supper. 347 

diction. 'This is my body," say all four witnesses. "This 
is my blood of the covenant," say two, while the other 
two say, ''This cup is the new covenant in my blood." 

If all this were meant to be figurative, what an oppor- 
tunitv there would have been to have declared it ! But of 
this, there is not the faintest trace. 

12. What evidence is there corroborative of the literal 
interpretation ? 

i Cor. 11:27- — "Whosoever shall eat the bread or drink the cup ot the 
Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty ot the body ana blood ot the 
Lord." v. 29 — "For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh judg- 
ment unto himself, it he discern not the body." 

The unworthy are guilty of having dishonored the body 
and blood of the Lord, by not receiving it reverently and 
in faith. They do not discern the Lord's body, when they 
make no difference between a meal in which there is a 
communion of the body, and one in which there is none. 

1 Cor. 10:16 — "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a com- 
munion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break is it not a 
communion of the body ot Christ?" 

The cup of blessing is not the emblem, the sign, the seal, 
but the real means of imparting or receiving the blood, as 
the bread is the means of receiving the body of Christ. 
This passage Luther calls "The living remedy of my heart 
against all temptations concerning this Sacrament" (Erl. 
ed., XXIX, 244). 

13. What are the chief arguments on the other side? 
The first is : "A true body cannot be in more than one 

place at the same time." This is based upon the assump- 
tion that the body can acquire no new properties in virtue 
of its union with a divine nature. Nevertheless even in 
man's body, matter attains a new range of properties from 
its union with the soul, so that it is said to be "animated." 
If this be the case in the natural or physical, how much 
more so, in the spiritual body? Such "spiritual body" 
does not mean a body transformed into spirit, but simply 
endowed with new properties pertaining to spirit. What 



348 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

thus occurs in the bodies of believers should not be denied 
to occur in a still higher degree in the body of Christ. If 
the body, by union with a finite spirit, acquire finite spir- 
itual endowments, so when united with the Infinite Spirit, 
it may attain infinite spiritual endowments. 

14. How many modes of the presence of the body of 
Christ are there? 

"The one body of Christ," says Luther, "has a three- 
fold mode of being anywhere. 'First, the comprehensible, 
bodily mode, as He went about in the body on earth. . . . 
Secondly, the incomprehensible, spiritual, according to 
which He neither occupies nor makes room, but penetrates 
all creatures according to His will. . . . This mode He 
used when He rose from the closed sepulchre and passed 
through the closed doors, and in the bread and wine of the 
Holy Supper. Thirdly, the divine, heavenly mode, since 
He is one person with God, according to which all crea- 
tures must be far more penetrable and present to Him 
than they are according to the second mode. . . . Where 
God is, there also must He be. But who will say or think 
how this occurs? . . . Because, therefore, it is unknown 
to us, and yet is true, we should not deny His words be- 
fore we know how to prove to a certainty that the body of 
Christ cannot be where God is' (Formula of Concord, 
619). See also above, Chapter XI, 48. 

15. What is the second chief argument? 

That the doctrine of the Real Presence in the Lord's 
Supper conflicts with the article concerning the Ascension 
of Christ to heaven. This, however, is a misconception of 
the Ascension. It did not localize the body of Christ at 
the Right Hand of God ; for this is an erroneous concep- 
tion of the Right Hand (see Chapter XII, 65-67). But 
it was the entrance into the full use of the communicated 
divine power and presence (see Chapter XII, 60). 

Eph. 4:10 — "He ascended far above the heavens, that he might till all 
things." Phil. 3:21. 



Chap. XXVIII.] of the holy supper. 349 

All declarations of our Lord concerning absence from 
His disciples, as Luke 24: 27, and leaving the world (John 
13: 1), refer to different modes of His presence, and not 
to any real withdrawal (Matt. 28:20; Mark 16: 19, 20). 
As His coming into the world implied no local change ; 
for even during His State of Humiliation the Son of Man 
was in heaven (John 3 : 13), so His going forth from the 
world was no absolute separation. The Ascension instead 
of forming an adverse argument only confirms that de- 
rived from the liberal interpretation of the words of in- 
stitution. 

16. How is the presence of the Body and Blood of 
Christ in the Lord's Slipper defined? 

As real, substantial and sacramental. By "real" we 
mean the reverse of figurative or emblematic. By "sub- 
stantial," the reverse of potential, i. e., it is not only the 
effect of the sacrifice of His body and blood that is present 
and efficacious, but they are themselves there. By "sacra- 
mental" we distinguish it from every other form of pres- 
ence that is conceivable. It is a presence found in the 
Lord's Supper, and nowhere else. 

17. You have shozvn thus far that in this Sacrament 
the heavenly gift is the Body and Blood of Christ. State 
now the relation which they have to the bread and wine. 

It is not that of Transubstantiation. There is no change 
of the substance of the bread and wine into the substance 
of body and blood of Christ, so that only the accidents of 
bread and wine remain. Such a doctrine is without the 
very least support from Holy Scripture. On the contrary, 
Scripture speaks of the bread as existing after the conse- 
cration (1 Cor. 10:16; 11:26 sq.), and Christ calls it, 
after consecration, "the fruit of the vine" (Matt. 26:29; 
Mark 14: 29). Bread and wine are called the "commun- 
ion of the body and blood," i. e., the medium through 
which they are communicated. A communion requires 



350 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

the union of two objects ; if the one be changed into the 
other, the communion is destroyed. 

18. This doctrine seems to me to remove from the 
Lord's Supper one of the essentials of a Sacrament. {See 
Chapter XXVI, 14.) 

You are correct. According to it, the earthly element 
is annihilated. 

19. What kindred doctrine is rejected? 

The Lutheran Church and its theologians, with one con- 
sent, repudiate Consubstantiation, although many writers 
and books of reference prepared by those outside of her 
communion, insist upon ascribing it to her, and even show 
irritation when we protest against the misrepresentation 
which has been often corrected. It is a term invented to 
stigmatize a doctrine which is rejected by those who use 
it, and must be classed with the opprobrious terms or nick- 
names not uncommon where there is an excess of polem- 
ical zeal. Murray's "Dictionary of the English Lan- 
guage" correctly says of Consubstantiation : "A term 
used controversially to designate the Lutheran doctrine of 
the Saviour's presence 'in, with and under the in-sub- 
stance — unchanged bread and wine' ; but not used by the 
Lutheran Church, nor accepted by Lutherans as a correct 
expression of their view." 

It is difficult in all Church History to find a well estab- 
lished example of Consubstantiation taught anywhere. 
The term "consubstantiaP is familiar from the doctrines 
of the Trinity (Chapter III, 48), and the Person of Christ 
(Chapter XI, 8). It is a technical theological term, equiv- 
alent to the Greek "homoousios," and meaning "of one 
substance.'' Applied here, it would mean that the bread 
and body of Christ, and the wine and His blood become 
one substance. But as the bread remains bread and has 
all its properties, the body of Christ would be with it a 
merely natural substance and partake of these properties. 



Chap. XXVIII. ] of the holy supper. 35 1 

So Hooker, in his classical "Ecclesiastical Polity," states 
his conception of Consubsfcantiation to be "the kneading 
up of both substances as it were into one lump" (Book V, 
LXVII, 510). 

One form of consubstantiation is that of an acid and an 
alkali, uniting in a salt, and forming a new substance. 

From all such attempts to explain the presence, etc., our 
Church has abstained. It teaches no "Impanation" or in- 
clusion of the body of Christ in the bread, or "Subpana- 
tion," or presence beneath the bread, or any other such 
"figments.'' 

20. Hozv then is the doctrine of the Sacramental 
Union stated ? 

According to I Cor. 10 : 16, we simply affirm that the 
bread and wine are the means for conveying the real and 
substantial (see above, 16), yet spiritual and glorified 
body of Christ (see Chapters XII, 53-55; XI, 45). The 
union is such that the heavenly and the earthly object, 
each retains its own substance, and is truly received by 
one and the same act on the part of the one using it. 

21. Is the expression that the body and blood of Christ 
are "in, with and under'' the bread and wine, an adequate 
statement of the doctrine? 

It is intended simply to affirm the doctrine of the Real 
Presence, and to guard it against the abuses of Transub- 
stantiation, Consubstantiation, Impanation, Subpanation, 
etc., but after all fails to define it adequately, since we deal 
with a mystery where faith must be content with knowing 
more clearly what the sacramental union is not, than with 
describing fully what it is. Where the Word of God de- 
clares no more than "This is my body" and "the bread is 
the communion of the body," a cautious reserve is more 
commendable than an ambitious attempt exhaustively to 
state in scientific formula what we are asked simply to 
believe. 



352 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

Thus with all humility and obedience, we should 
simply believe the plain, firm, clear and solemn word of 
our Creator and Redeemer, without any doubt or dispu- 
tation as to how it may agree with our reason, or be pos- 
sible. For these words the Lord, who is infinite wisdom, 
and truth itself, has spoken, and everything which He 
promises, He also can execute and accomplish" (Formula 
of Concord, 609). Mysteria divinitatis recthis adora- 
verimus, quam vestigaverimus (Melanchthon). 

22. What is meant by the expression, "This cup is the 
new covenant in my blood"? 

"This cup is in virtue of my blood the new covenant." 
A fuller statement would be, that it is through the blood 
of Christ, that the new covenant has been made, and that 
to attest and seal the certainty of its establishment, the 
very blood through which this has been accomplished is 
here offered to the communicants. 

23. In what manner are the Body and Blood of Christ 
received? 

While in the Lord's Supper the bread and wine are re- 
ceived and appropriated in a natural manner, just as any 
other food, the Body and Blood of Christ are received 
and appropriated in a supernatural and inexplicable way. 

24. May this not be simply by faith? 

How then could the unbelieving receive them to their 
condemnation, as is clearly taught in 1 Cor. 11:27, 2 9? 
The eating and drinking of the heavenly object must be 
one that can be affirmed of both believers and unbelievers. 
Through the medium of the bread and wine, the Body and 
Blood are communicated in a supernatural way to the 
body of the communicant. This is what is meant by the 
oral reception and mianducation of which the Formula of 
Concord says : "We believe, teach and confess that the 
Body and Blood of Christ are received with the bread and 
wine, not only spiritually by faith, but also orally ; yet 



Chap. XXVIII. ] of the holy supper. 353 

not in a Capernaitic, but in a supernatural, heavenly mode, 
because of the sacramental union" (512). 

25. What is meant by the "Capernaitic mode"? 

The false interpretation of the spiritual eating by the 
people of Capernaum, as related in John 6 : 52. "How can 
this man give us his flesh to eat?'' Unlike the bread and 
wine, the Body and Blood of Christ are not subject to the 
processes of mastication, swallowing, digestion, etc. All 
our knowledge of the presence and reception of Christ 
ends with the fact that, with the bread, the Body, and, 
with the wine, the Blood is received and appropriated. 
We have no assurance of the presence of either, a second 
before or after the eating of the bread and the drinking 
of the wine. 

26. Discriminate the modes of "eating," and state their 
relation to the Lord's Supper. 

There are three, viz., the Natural, the Spiritual and the 
Sacramental. The Natural is that, by which food is ordi- 
narily taken, and the bread is eaten in the Lord's Supper. 
The Spiritual, is the appropriation of Christ and His bene- 
fits by faith, as expounded in the sixth chapter of John 
(see above, 2). The Sacramental occurs nowhere ex- 
cept in the Lord's Supper, as above explained. 

The Natural and Sacramental always concur in the 
Lord's Supper. The Spiritual occurs also outside of and 
without the Lord's Supper. In the Lord's Supper, it may 
be present or not. As the Natural eating is subordinate 
and a means for the Sacramental, so the Sacramental has 
been instituted by God to be a means for the Spiritual, 
although by mian's abuse of God's gifts this end is often 
not attained. As in every Sacrament there are three 
things, an element, a heavenly gift and a divine promise, 
the Natural eating appropriates the first ; the Sacramental, 
the second ; and the Spiritual, the third. 

"You have no need to teach us that the mere bodilv 



354 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

eating is of no profit. We say more, viz., that the mere 
bodily eating is poisonous and deadly, as Paul says in 
I Cor. 1 1 : 29. But this is no proof that the body of Christ 
is not present. It proves only the contrary. For if it 
were not there, the mere bodily eating would be harmless 
and profitable. . . . For although, in the Holy Supper, 
the godless divide and separate the two to their own con- 
demnation, and eat the body of Christ without the Word, 
and only with the mouth and without the heart, i. e,, in an 
entirely bodily and not a spiritual way, nevertheless this 
is not according to Christ's institution, in which He com- 
bined the two, the receiving of His Word and the receiv- 
ing of His body, eating spiritually with the heart and 
bodily with the mouth. The abuse of the godless cannot 
set aside or change God's institution and order" (Luther, 
Erlangen ed., 30:86 sq.). 

27. Having considered the element, and the heavenly 
gift, the third factor of the Sacrament remains. 

This is the divine promise given at its institution : 

"Given for you" (Luke 22:19). "For you" (1 Cor. 11:28). "Poured 
out tor you" (Luke 22:20). "Poured out for many unto remission of 
sins" (Matt. 26:28). "Poured out for many" (Mark 14:26). 

28. How does the Catechism estimate the force of 
these words? 

It regards them the most important part of the entire 
Sacrament. "How can bodily eating and drinking do 
such great things?" it asks, and then answers: "It is not 
the eating and drinking indeed that does it, but the words 
that stand here, 'Given and shed for you for the remis- 
sion of sins.' These words which accompany the bodily 
eating and drinking, are the chief things in the Sacra- 
ment, and he that believes these words has what they de- 
clare and mean, namely the forgiveness of sins." The 
only true preparation for receiving the communion, it 
continues, is to "have faith in these words, 'Given and 
shed for you for the remission of sins.' But he who be- 



Chap. XXVIII.] of the holy supper. 355 

lieves not these words or doubts, is unworthy and unpre- 
pared ; for the words, for you, require truly believing 
hearts." So the Large Catechism says: "Bring thyself 
into this you, that His speaking with thee be not in vain. 
For in this, He offers to us the entire treasure which He 
has brought for us from heaven" (483). This is in har- 
mony with what Luther says concerning Baptism in his 
Babylonian Captivity : "Look more to the Word, than to 
the sign ; more to faith, than to the work or use of the 
sign. 

29. But how can the assurance and promise of God's 
grace to us individually be the chief thing in the Sacra- 
ment, when the Body and Blood of Christ are also there ? 

Because the Son of God has flesh and blood for no 
other purpose than that His promise of forgiveness of 
sins, life and salvation, may be offered and fulfilled to us. 
Unless that promise be appropriated by faith, the Body 
and Blood of Christ are abused, and bring condemnation 
instead of blessing. As the Natural eating, therefore, is 
subordinate to the Sacramental, so the Sacramental is 
subordinate to the Spiritual. On God's part, the most 
important gift is the promise ; on our part, the most im- 
portant act is faith in the promise. 

30. Since, however, the promise is given also outside 
of the Sacrament, does not this involve a depreciation of 
the Lord's Supper ? 

By no means. For when faith accepts all that Christ 
has spoken concerning this ordinance, and prompts to the 
careful observance of all that He has commanded, it 
gains especial assurance and comfort from the promise 
as herein communicated. Even although the same prom- 
ise has been heard a thousand times outside of the Sacra- 
ment, it acquires a new force when it has as its pledge and 
seal the very Body and Blood that were the price of our 
redemption. 



356 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

31. In what sense is the Lord's Supper a memorial 
service? 

That it is such is clearly taught. 

Luke 22:19 — "This do in remembrance 01 me." 

1 Cor. 1 1 :2s, 26 — "This do, as oit as ye drink it, in remembrance ot me. 
For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye proclaim the Lord's 
death till he come.'' 

But the particular truth commemorated is not the mode 
of His death, but the great fact of His death and the sig- 
nificance of all that is comprised in Redemption. 

32. Explain this more fully. 

Assuming the doctrine of the Real Presence and the 
Sacramental Union and Eating, the entire Plan of Salva- 
tion and much that it presupposes are most forcibly set 
forth in the Holy Supper. 

The proclamation of death and the presence of blood 
that has been shed, preach the Law as well as the Gospel, 
by arraigning all who partake of the Holy Supper, of a 
guilt that called for the death of the Son of God. But 
with this announcement of guilt, there is also the procla- 
mation of the remedy which has been provided. While 
"without the shedding of blood, there is no remission" 
(Heb. 9:22), here we are assured that this requirement 
has been met, and that blood has actually been shed for us ; 
and, as a pledge of this, it is actually offered to and ap- 
plied to each communicant. The days of Old Testament 
waiting are over ; the promise has been fulfilled ; the 
sacrifice so long expected is actually here. It is not the 
body that is to be given, but that has been given. It is 
not the blood that is to be shed, but that has been shed, of 
which the cup is a communion. Nor can there be any 
doubt concerning the persons for whom it is intended. 
We need not search for any secret counsel of God con- 
cerning our salvation. For here is the surest evidence of 
His gracious will toward us. What is it that He will not 
grant, when He gives us His Son, and, when as a pledge, 
that His Son has actually been given, offers us nothing 



Chap. XXVIII. ] of the holy supper. 357 

less than His very body and His very blood ! How forc- 
ibly this is impressed, when each one, by himself, is made 
to realize that redemption has been provided for him, and 
the Son of God belongs individually to him ! For this 
reason, the main stress rests upon those very small mono- 
syllables, "For you." 

"All the good things that God the Lord has, belong 
to Christ, and here become entirely mine. But that I 
may have a sign and assurance that such inexpressibly 
great blessings are mine, I take to myself the body and 
blood of Jesus Christ." "If I believe that His body and 
blood are mine, I have the Lord Jesus entirely and com- 
pletely and all that He can do is mine, so that my heart is 
joyful and full of courage ; for I am not left to my own 
piety, but to His innocent blood and pure body which I 
receive" (Luther, Walch's ed., XI, 842 sq.). 

33. What is the main difficulty concerning the accept- 
ance of the Real Presence ? 

Not its mysteriousness ; for it presents no greater diffi- 
culties than the Trinity or the Incarnation, but the diffi- 
culty lies in the words "For you" ; since no pastor who 
believes in a limited atonement, and holds that Christ died 
only for the elect, can say to each communicant : "This is 
the Body of Christ given for thee." "This is the blood 
of the New Testament shed for thy sins." For to do this, 
he must, according to his doctrine, be able to know what 
God has reserved for His own knowledge, viz., who are 
included in the number of His elect. Starting, therefore, 
with this practical difficulty, the next step is to find argu- 
ments by which to explain the Real Presence away. 

34. Has the chief effect of the Lord's Supper through- 
out the nearly two thousand years of its use, been to pro- 
claim Law and Gospel, as suggested under 31? 

Undoubtedly. While the greater number of communi- 
cants may not be able to express fully what it is to them, 



35& A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

nevertheless these are the facts particularly impressed 
upon the hearts of Christian people, as they receive the 
communion. They are also the great truths which the 
constant use of this ordinance proclaims, from generation 
to generation, to the world which surrounds the Church. 

35. Is the Holy Supper in any sense a sacrifice f 

A Sacrament is an institution and action of God; a 
sacrifice is an action of man (Chapter XXVI, 13). In a 
Sacrament, God offers man something ; in a sacrifice, man 
offers God something. It is God who offers to man bread 
and wine, with the assurance that the Body and Blood of 
Christ accompany them as the pledge of His forgiveness, 
love and favor. There is an entire perversion of the Holy 
Supper, where man is regarded as, through an officiating 
priest, offering to God the Body and Blood of Christ, in 
order to propitiate Him for our sins. The Lord's Supper 
does not presuppose an angry God who is to be reconciled 
by an offering to be made on our behalf ; but it most forc- 
ibly declares that the sacrifice for our sins was made once 
for all by the death of Christ upon the cross, and in order 
to call forth our faith and increase our love brings to us 
the Body and Blood of the covenant offered for us. It 
presupposes God's love, and declares that forgiveness of 
sins and every blessing are present, and have only to be 
appropriated by faith. The Holy Supper is not, therefore, 
a sacrifice. 

36. Bui is not the use of the Holy Supper sacrificial? 

Every act of man called forth by a command and prom- 
ise of God is sacrificial. Our coming to the Lord's Sup- 
per and taking, eating and drinking are sacrifices. 
They are not propitiatory, in order to purchase reconcili- 
ation ; for this has been done by Christ. But they are 
eucharistic sacrifices, or offerings of gratitude and praise 
for what He has done for us. 

"There is but one propitiatory sacrifice in the world, 



Chap. XXVIII. ] of the holy supper. 359 

viz., the death of Christ. . \ . The rest are eucharistic 
sacrifices, which are called sacrifices of praise" (Apol- 
ogy, 263). 

37. Through whom is the Lord's Supper administer edf 
Through those whom the Church has regularly called 

and appointed as its ministers (Chapter XXVI, 21). 

38. But is there no necessity that jusnfies the admin- 
istration by a layman? 

The unanimous judgment of our Church teaches and 
the practice of the Church is against it. The necessity 
cannot be as urgent as that of Baptism (John 3:5). 

39. In the administration' is it essential that both the 
bread and the wine be given to all communicants? 

We have no right to depart from the original institu- 
tion, enforced, as it is, by the words of Christ, "This do 
ye." The advocates of ''communion in one form" (the 
Roman Catholic Church) acknowledge that at the institu- 
tion all received both bread and wine. Our Lord, with 
the greatest explicitness commands the use of the wine by 
all communicants. , , ,. , 

"Drink ye all of it" (Matt. 26:27); "And they all drank of it" (Mark 
14:23); "And he received a cup, and when he had given thanks, he said, 
Take this and divide it among yourselves" (Luke 22:17). 

The irregularities in the Corinthian Church show that 
laymen as well as ministers partook of the wine ( I Cor. 
11 :2i). The practice of the Church for many centuries 
was in accord with this usage. 

40. Upon zvhat grounds, therefore, has the withdrawal 
of the cup been defended? 

The advocates of the withdrawal of the cup argue, first, 
that the Church has the right to change the original insti- 
tution, and, secondly, have invented the doctrine of "sac- 
ramental concomitance," according to which, since, in re- 
ceiving the body, the blood of Christ is regarded as in- 
cluded, it is deemed unnecessary to administer the other, 
as it seems a needless repetition. The effect of this is to 



360 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

place the word of the Church above that of Christ. The 
real explanation is that it draws a sharp line between 
clergy and laity, and relieves the administration of diffi- 
culties suggested by the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
For if the wine be changed, as this doctrine teaches, into 
the blood of Christ, the spilling of the least drop is fraught 
with the most serious consequences. 

41. To whom is the Holy Supper to be administered ? 

The Lord's Supper was not instituted until at the very 
close of Christ's ministry, when His disciples had been 
under His instruction for several years. It is the Sacra- 
ment of mature Christianity. It was not offered to the 
multitudes that thronged to hear Him preach, or to the 
children who cried "Hosanna!" but to the inner circle of 
those who had entered and were still to enter most fully 
and deeply into His experience. The First Epistle to the 
Corinthians (11:20-34) treats particularly of the pre- 
paration required for its profitable use. 

1 Cor. 11:28 — "But let a man prove himselt and so let him eat ot the 
bread and drink ot the cup/' 

It is manifest, therefore, that it should be administered 
to none who are incapable of such self-examination (see 
Chapter XVII, 7). It is, therefore, not a Sacrament for 
little children or for those of feeble or disordered mind. 
The Church also, according to circumstances of time and 
place, has to make regulations to guard the Sacrament 
from abuse, and to serve the highest interests of the 
greatest number of communicants. "None are admitted 
except they be first proved" (Augsburg Confession, Art. 
XXIV). Hence it is entirely within its province to in- 
terpose even a human ordinance, as Confirmation, as re- 
quirement for the admission to the Holy Supper of those 
who have been baptized in infancy. Nor can any Church 
be satisfied with regarding the regulations made by any 
other Church sufficient for its own guidance in the use of 
the Power of the Keys, connected with this Sacrament. 



Chap. XXVIII.] OF THE HOLY SUPPER. 361 

Each Church must be responsible for the enforcement of 
its own standard. 

42. Are no doctrinal tests necessary? 

Paul clearly shows that it is a dishonor to Christ to 
make no difference between a meal through which the 
Body of Christ is communicated and ordinary meals. 

1 Cor. 11:29 — "For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh 
judgment unto himself, if he discern not the body." 

The Church, therefore, must make such tests as may 
deter those from partaking who would eat and drink 
judgment to themselves or would encourage others in 
such guilt. 

43. Is the faith which is required for the profitable 
use of the Lord's Supper merely doctrinal correctness 
concerning this article f 

We must always revert to what our Catechism calls 
"the chief thing in the Sacrament" (see above, 26-31). 
"He is truly worthy and well prepared, who has faith in 
these words, 'Given and shed for you for the remission of 
sins.' But he who believes not these words or doubts, is 
unworthy and unprepared ; for the words 'for you' re- 
quire truly believing hearts" (Small Catechism). 

44. Does the Sacrament bring condemnation where 
there is zveak faith f 

Not if it be true faith in Christ, and in His words, 
"For you." 

Rom. 8:1 — "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are 
in Christ Jesus." 

The Lord's Supper was instituted not to condemn, but 
to comfort and strengthen the weak faith of Christians 
(see Chapter XVII, 29, 30). What may seem the strong- 
est faith, is after all weak, when regarded according to 
the divine standard. 

"For Christians of weak faith, diffident and troubled, 
who, because of the greatness and number of their sins, 
£re terrified, and think, that, in this their great impurity, 



362 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

they are not worthy of this precious treasure and the bene- 
fits of Christ, and who feel and lament their weakness of 
faith, and from their hearts desire to serve God with 
stronger and more joyful faith and pure obedience, are 
truly worthy guests, for whom this Sacrament has been 
especially instituted, as Christ says (Matt. 11 : 28), 'Come 
unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden : and 1 will 
give you rest' " (Formula of Concord, 614). 

45. Does the Catechism mean that doubts should deter 
one from receiving the Sacrament? 

No. They should only impel us all the more to turn 
away from them to the sacramental promise itself (Chap- 
ter XVII, 48-51). 

46. Should a pastor administer the communion to 
himself? 

When the Schmalkald Articles (314:8, 9) condemn 
"self-communion,'' they refer to private, not to public 
communion, and denounce any use of the Sacrament by a 
minister "for his own private devotion," apart from other 
communicants. The Lutheran Orders of the Sixteenth 
Century which allow or prescribe the self-administration, 
do so upon the presupposition of Private Confession and 
Absolution by another pastor. Others directly forbid it. 
The following is the judgment of some of our theologians 
concerning it : The general principle is laid down that "it 
is nowhere commanded that different persons always per- 
form the part of ministrant and recipient, nor is it any- 
where forbidden a pastor, in time of necessity, to admin- 
ister the communion to himself. It is, therefore, an adia- 
phoron" (Hollazius). Nevertheless "the nearer the ad- 
ministration of the Sacrament approaches the first insti- 
tution, the better and safer is it. But in the first institu- 
tion, the person administering, viz., Christ, and the per- 
sons receiving, viz., the disciples, were different. As no 
one ordinarily absolves himself from sins, so no one gives 



Chap. XXVIII.] OF THE HOLY SUPPER. 363 

the Sacrament to himself" (Hollazius). Gerhard quotes 
Pelargus approvingly concerning our Lord's going to 
John the Baptist for Baptism, and the fuller confirmation 
of faith to be obtained when one can hear the promise of 
the Gospel pronounced by the voice of another. Bech- 
mann puts the question : "Can a minister administer the 
Holy Supper to himself?" and answers it: "He can, if 
another orthodox minister cannot be had. But if one can 
be had, it is better to use his ministry, to avoid the sus-' 
picion of contempt for the ministry." With this Gerhard 
and Hollazius agree. If the Lord's Supper were chiefly 
sacrificial (see above, 35, 36), whether propitiatory as in 
the Roman, or eucharistic as in the Reformed, there would 
be no reason why any pastor should give this question any 
consideration. The difficulty arises in attempting to 
reconcile the sacramental function of the pastor, with his 
simultaneous sacrificial attitude.* 

47. Has the Lord's Supper any other purpose than 
that of individualizing the general promise of the Gospel? 

Emphasizing, first of all, the importance of the indi- 
vidual in his relation to Christ, through this individual 
union with Christ, it is a Sacrament also of the union of 
individual Christians with each other. 

1 Cor. 10:17 — "Seeing we who are many are one bread, one body; for 
we all partake of the one bread." 

The bread being "the communion of the body of 
Christ" (v. 16), all who partake of the bread receive the 
one body of Christ, and are thus united into one body. 
This design of the Lord's Supper is of course defeated, 
as to themselves, by unbelieving communicants. But this 



*"lt is placed in the liberty of the minister, I think, as to whether, when 
he has consecrated, he always himself should commune or not. Meanwhile 
attention should be paid to what has been, without superstition, the pre- 
vailing custom in any church. If the custom so hold, I never would advise 
the consecrating minister vastly to change it, not that it [i. e. consistency 
with the past] is absolutely necessary, but so that the more infirm may not 
be offended, and unnecessary disturbances be agitated in a peaceful and 
tranquil Church."— (Hutter, Loci, 727.) 



364 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

does not prevent it from being to believers an institution, 
which makes visible and strengthens the inner bond of 
union with one another. It is a cord or tendon binding 
together the members of congregations, and uniting con- 
gregations, and communions, and the Church of all ages, 
as in the same elements, through the same words, the same 
Christ, with all His blessings, is offered and received, so 
that the same experience of the love and mercy of God 
becomes the common property of all who use the Sacra- 
ment aright. 

48. What follozvs from ihisf 

The Lord's Supper declares not only the union of 
Christians with one another by becoming "one bread in 
Christ," but also their life of service for one another. If 
they are one bread with Christ, and Christ is imparted 
for the life of others, they share also in this, as in all else 
that Christ is and does. The one bread that is eaten by be- 
lievers, is Christ and all believers united with him. Luther 
says with customary force : 

"How is it that we are all one bread and eat one an- 
other? It is in this way: When I eat the Sacrament, I 
eat it externally ; but internally I partake of all the bless- 
ings of Christ, and of Christ Himself, just as though I 
were eating bodily bread, which strengthens me inwardly. 
... So also among us, it comes to pass that we all be- 
come one cake and eat one another. You know that when 
bread is made, all the grains of wheat are ground together 
and pulverized, so that in a bag of flour all the grains are 
thoroughly mingled, so that the flour of each becomes that 
of another, and none retains its own form, but loses its 
own body. So also when wine is made, each little grape 
mingles its juice with that of others, and loses its own 
form. So with us. If I make myself common property, 
and serve you so that I am used as you have need of me, I 
am your food. As when hungry, you use bread so that it 



Chap. XXVIII. ] OF THE HOLY SUPPER. 365 

helps your body and gives you strength ; so also, when I 
serve vou in anv necessity, I am also your bread. If then 
you are a Christian, you so act that you and all you have 
is for my service, and I partake of it, just as I do of food 
or drink. . . . Is it not, then, a great matter that the Su- 
preme Majesty comes to me and imparts Himself to me 
as my own ! and then, that all the saints come to me, and 
accept me as theirs, and care for me, and serve me and 
help me!" (Luther, Erlangen ed., XI, 189 sq.) 

He treats of the same subject at great length in a ser- 
mon on the Holy Sacrament of the True Body of Christ 
(1519), from which we quote only a few sentences :- 

'The reception of this Sacrament is nothing else than 
the reception of a sure sign, of this communion or incor- 
poration with Christ and all saints ; just as if a citizen were 
furnished with a testimonal or certificate of his citizen- 
ship. . . . All the spiritual blessings of Christ and His 
saints are received by one who receives this Sacrament, as 
well as all their sorrows and sins, so that love enkindles 
love and unites. He who will share in what is enjoyed 
must also help pay, and return love for love. He who in- 
jures a single citizen, injures the whole city and all the 
citizens ; he who benefits one, deserves the favor and 
thanks of all" (Erlangen ed., 27: 28-30). 

49. Is there not also a prophetic element in the Lord's 
Supper? 

It is a formal announcement and declaration not only 
of the death and resurrection, but also of the second com- 
ing and complete triumph of Christ, and in this triumph 
of the Lord, that of all who believe unto the end, what- 
ever be the infirmities of this mortal life.* 



*ln an Easter sermon, Harless speaks of the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper as "the Church's confession of the world-conquering power of the 
death of Christ, since it points forward to the Lord's return ( i Cor. 
11:26)." He compares such constant celebration in all Christian congre- 
gations at all times throughout the whole world to "the sound of chimes, 



366 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

1 Cor. 11:26 — "Ye proclaim the Lord's death, till he come." Luke 
22:18 — "I shall not drink from henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until 
the kingdom of God shall come. " Matt. 26:29. 

'The Jewish passover was succeeded by the Lord's 
Supper ; this will be further succeeded by something 
heavenly" (Bengel). "As the Old Testament passover 
was a promise and earnest of the Holy Supper, so the 
Holy Supper is a promise and earnest of the Supper of the 
Lamb in the kingdom of glory (Rev. 19:9)" (Besser). 
"If, therefore, by the gift of the body and blood of Christ 
in the Holy Supper, we are assured of the forgiveness of 
sins, we have at the same time a pledge, thereby, of ever- 
lasting life and the future resurrection. In this sense, our 
Catechism says very aptly that 'through these words, the 
remission of sins, life and salvation are granted unto us in 
the sacrament ; for where forgiveness of sins is, there are 
also life and salvation" (Philippi, "Kirchliche Glaubens- 
lehre," V, 2:476). 

50. What important practical result follows from these 
uses of the Lord's Supper? 

It constantly recalls the minds of those who use it aright 
to the most central facts and truths of Christianity. In 
the light of this Holy Sacrament, the proper relation be- 
tween the various doctrines and duties of our religion, is 
set forth and maintained. The words of the Gospel which 
it brings and seals to the individual, every time he com- 
munes, condense all that is taught in both Old and New 
Testament. It is an impressive summary of God's entire 
revelation of Himself to man. It fixes the lines along 
which faith moves and according to which it works, in 



proclaiming in loud tones and without interruption the great day of Christ's 
coming, and the dawn of the kingdom of undisturbed peace to all the ends 
of the earth. The Lord's Supper is the morning bell for the approaching 
day. This is the glorious meaning of the words: 'This do, as oft as ye 
drink it in remembrance of me.' It is the congregation's loud confession 
of the kingdom of peace, foundea here upon earth by Christ's death, but 
to be completed with the appearing of the Lord at the time when there will 
be a new heaven and a new earth." 



Chap. XXVIII. ] OF THE HOLY SUPPER. 367 

its further study of God's Word and in the practice of the 
duties and the bearing of the trials of the Christian life. 
Nor is its testimony confined to communicants. It shows 
forth the Lord's death and all that it means to those as yet 
outside the Church. Without interruption, it has come 
down from a period before men could read the message 
of the Gospel in the canon of the New Testament, and 
even before its very first book was written, and through 
all these ages, it gave the very same testimony as it is 
giving today. 

51. What three parts belong to the sacramental action? 
"The consecration, the distribution and the reception" 

(Formula of Concord, 617). 

52. What is the consecration? 

It is described in the original institution as follows : 

Matt. 26:26, 27 — "Jesus took bread and blessed it.... And he took a 
cup and gave thanks." 

It may be defined as the setting apart of the elements 
for sacramental use by the repetition of the words of in- 
stitution and prayer (F. C, 512). "Whatever is sancti- 
fied, is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer ( 1 Tim. 
4: 5)" (Hollaz). The form of the prayer being left to the 
judgment of the Church, the Lord's Prayer is not abso- 
lutely necessary, but is employed because nothing better 
can be found. 'The words of institution should in no way 
be omitted, but should be publicly recited ' (Formula of 
Concord, 512). Nevertheless the presence of the Body and 
Blood of Christ is not dependent upon the declaration of 
the minister, but upon the original institution (lb. 512, 
615). There is no promise of any presence where there is 
a mere consecration and no further use of the Sacrament. 
Extra usnm, nullum sacramentnm. 

53. What is the distribution? 

The act by which the consecrated elements are oflfered 
to the communicants, with the words, declaring in Christ's 



368 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. Chap. XXVIII. 

name, what he said and tendering what he gave at the 
first distribution. Whether the elements be given into the 
band or directly applied to the lips of the communicant is 
of itself a matter of indifference, but in practice should be 
regulated with a view to good order and with regard to 
what the experience of the Church has found to be pre- 
ferable for the avoidance of abuses, and most impressive 
for serving the ends of the Sacrament. 

54. What is the reception ? 

The taking and eating, and the taking and drinking. 
Christ gives no assurance of any special presence of His 
Body and Blood with the consecrated except in the eating 
and drinking. It is only in the culmination of this sacra- 
mental action, that the Sacrament actually occurs. 

55. Hozv often should the Lord's Supper be received? 
Here regard must be had to the two-fold purpose of the 

Lord's Supper. 

(a) The confirmation and strengthening of faith by the 
assurance given the individual of the forgiveness of his 
sins and of the favor of God, through the pledge of the 
body and blood of Christ offered all who commune. 

(b) The confession of our faith, the recognition of 
others as Christian brethren, and the uniting of Christian 
people as one congregation, and of Christian congrega- 
tions as one body in Christ. 

Accordingly as individual Christians, there are times 
when we especially need the Lord's Supper, and when 
our hearts are more open than at other times for its con- 
solation. But as members of congregations and of synods, 
it is sometimes a privilege, as well as a duty, to commune 
even where no such exceptional need be felt. Where a 
weekly communion is administered or advocated, it is 
never the intention that all members of the congregation 
should commune, but only to provide for the individual 
need, to which allusion has been made above. "We hold 



Chap. XXIX.] . the church. 369 

one communion every holy day, and also other days, when 
any desire the Sacrament, it is given to such as ask for it" 
(Augsburg Confession, Art. XXIV). 

But where, as generally among us today, it is adminis- 
tered only occasionally, the purpose is to provide by a gen- 
eral or congregational communion for the second, as well 
as for the first of the ends mentioned. 

56. What admonition concerning this does our Cate- 
chism give? 

The Introduction to the Catechism says : "You are to be 
guided by the following principles : That we are to com- 
pel no one to believe or to receive the Lord's Supper ; that 
we are not to establish any laws on this point, or appoint 
the time and place ; but that we should so preach as to in- 
fluence the people, without any law adopted by us, to urge 
and as it were compel us who are pastors to administer 
the Lord's Supper to them. Now this object may be at- 
tained if we address them in the following manner : It is 
to be feared that he who does not desire to receive the 
Lord's Supper, at least three or four times during the 
year, despises the Sacrament and is no Christian. So, 
too, he is no Christian, who neither believes nor obeys the 
Gospel ; for Christ did not say : 'Omit or despise this/ 
but 'This do ye, as oft as ye drink it.' " 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

THE CHURCH. 

i. Recapitulate the several stages in the Plan of Sal- 
vation already noted. 

(1) The Incarnation of the Son of God and His Media- 
torial Work. (2) The Gift of the Holy Spirit to apply the 
fruits of Christ's Mediatorial Office. (3) The Activity of 
the Holy Spirit in this work through the Means of Grace. 



370 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

2. What remains to be treated ? 

The Organism through which God provides for the ad- 
ministration of the Means of Grace. 

3. What is this Organism? 
The Holy Christian Church. 

4. When did the Church begin? 

In one sense of the term, with the very first promise of 
Redemption and its acceptance by believing men. In the 
eleventh chapter of Hebrews, there is a long catalogue of 
those who, under the Old Testament, lived and died in 
faith of the coming revelation of God in Jesus Christ. 
So in Acts 7 : 38, Stephen speaks of "the church in the 
wilderness." But in its proper sense, it began only with 
the special gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when the 
full revelation of God in Christ had been made, the Holy 
Sacraments had been instituted, and God's people were 
furnished with the endowments through which their work 
was to be accomplished. It is a term which belongs par- 
ticularly to the Pentecostal period of Christianity. Of 
the one hundred and fourteen times in which it is men- 
tioned, in the New Testament, we find it in only two pas- 
sages in the Gospels, Matt. 16: 18; 18: 17. In the former 
of these, it is most distinctly referred to as something in 
the future. 

"Upon this rock, I will build my Church." 

5. How is the Church defined? 

"The Church is the congregation of saints, in which 
the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are 
rightly administered" (Augsburg Confession, Art. VII). 
It is "the congregation of saints who have with each other 
the fellowship of the same gospel or doctrine, and of the 
same Holy Spirit who renews, sanctifies and governs their 
hearts" (Apology, 163). "Men scattered throughout the 
whole world, who agree concerning the Gospel, and have 
the same Christ, the same Holy Ghost and the same Sacra- 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 371 

merits" (lb.). "The Church is a spiritual people, the true 
people of God, regenerated by the Holy Ghost." "Only 
they are the people, according to the Gospel, who receive 
the promise of the Spirit*' (lb., 164). 'This Church ex- 
ists, viz., the truly believing and righteous men scattered 
throughout the whole world" (lb., 165). 'Thank God, 
today a child seven years old knows what the Church is, 
viz., saints, believers and lambs who hear the voice of 
their Shepherd'' (Schmalkald Articles, 335). "The 
Church, which is the company of God's people" (Scotch 
Confession, XVI). 'The community or whole body of 
Christ's faithful people collectively" (Murray's Dic- 
tionary).* 

6. How can it be proved thai only regenerate and be- 
lieving persons constitute the Church ? 

In the first place, the New Testament word for Church, 
ecclesia, does not denote all men, but, as the etymology 
shows, "some called out of the promiscuous multitude." 
It is described in Eph. 4: 11-16, as a spiritual body, de- 
pending entirely upon Christ with all its joints and parts 
"fitly framed and knit together," and with Him as its 
Head. It is inconceivable how they could be members of 
Christ without partaking of His spiritual life. 

Rom. 8:9 — "If any man hath not the Spirit ot Christ, he is none ot his." 

It is described also in 1 Peter 2:4-9, as " a spiritual 
house," composed of "living stones," resting on Christ, 
the chief corner stone, and then, abandoning the figure, 
its members are exhorted : 

1 Pet. 2:9 — "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a 
people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellences of 
him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 

When Christ, therefore, in Matt. 16: 18 sq., refers to 
"my church," and its foundation, the allusion to the same 
object as is described in the above passage, is manifest. 

*One of the most recent definitions is that of Kahler: "The Church is 
the personal communion of those who have communion with the living 
Christ." (Wissenschatt der Chr. Lehre, 1893, P- 385.) 



372 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

Under another figure it is "the Bride of Christ,'' "sancti- 
fied by the washing of water with the word" (Eph. 5 : 26). 
It is only, however, of the community of believers that this 
can be affirmed. 

In the Greek of 1 Cor. 1 : 2, the definition of the Church 
we have above given, is very clear. We translate lit- 
erally : 

1 Cor. 1:2 — "To the church of God, which is at Corinth, the sanctified in 
Christ Jesus." 

7. But is the term always restricted to the regenerate 
and believing? 

By the very common figure of speech, synechdoche, a 
part is put for the whole, or the whole for a part. Men 
speak of a bundle of wheat, although straw and chaff 
compose the greater part ; and of so many tons of copper 
and iron, meaning the ore with all the impurities which 
are run off in the slag ; or of a cup of coffee when only a 
small portion of the decoction comes from the berry. 
Even a gold ring is an alloy. In the same way, while the 
word "church," in the strict sense, comprises none but 
believing and regenerate children of God, in a wider sense 
it includes those who are associated with them in a visible 
organization. It is thus "the external, visible society 
which is held together by the bond of the same profes- 
sion of the true doctrine and the communion of the Sacra- 
ments" (Quenstedt). "We grant that in this life, hypo- 
crites and wicked men have been mingled with the Church 
and that they are members of the Church according to the 
outward fellowship of the signs of the Church, i. e., of 
Word, profession and Sacraments" (Apology, 162). "Al- 
though, therefore, hypocrites and wicked men are mem- 
bers of the true Church according to outward rites, yet 
when the Church is defined, it is necessary to define that 
which is the living body of Christ" (Apology, 163). Un- 
believers and hypocrites do not actually belong to the 
Church, but are only externally attached to it, like dead 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 373 

branches to a living vine, or a parasite to an animal, or a 
fungus to a tree. 

8. How is the Church properly so called divided? 
Into the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant. 

The former is composed of the regenerate, who, in this 
world, are in constant conflict with Satan (Eph. 6 : 10 ; 
i Peter 5:8, 9), the world (1 John 5:4) and the flesh 
Rom. 7 : 23 ; Gal. 5 : 17). The latter, of those who, as vic- 
tors have passed beyond these scenes of earthly warfare. 

Rev. 2:10 — "Be thou faithful unto death, and 1 will give thee the crown 
of life." Rev. 7:9 — "A great multitude, which no man could number, out 
of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before 
the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes and palms in their 
hands." 

Sometimes the word "Church" designates both the Mil- 
itant and Triumphant, as in Heb. 12:23. 

"To the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in 
Heaven." 

9. How is this assembly of beliezers united ? 

In Christ their spiritual Head. The Mystical Union of 
Christ with each believer (see Chapter XXII) produces a 
mystical union of all believers in Him into a spiritual or- 
ganism. 

Eph. 1:22, 23 — "He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave 
him to be head over all things to his church, which is his body, the fulness 
of him that filleth all in all." 4:15 — "Grown up in all things into him, 
who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body fitly framed and 
knit together through that which every joint supplieth." etc. 5:23 — "Christ 
also is head of the church." Col. 1:18 — "And he is the head of the body, 
the church." 2:19 — "The head, from whom all the body, being supplied 
and knit together through the joints and bands, increaseth with the in- 
crease of God." 

10. In what sense is Christ called "Head of the 
Church"? 

No figure is applicable in all its relations. The head is 
only one member of the body, and is dependent upon the 
body for life and efficiency. Not so with Christ's head- 
ship of His Church. He is called "the Head of the Church'* 
to indicate His supremacy, and its dependence upon Him 
for direction and influence. It is not simply a moral 



374 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

power that He exercises, but by His presence and union 
with its members and through the Word and Sacraments, 
He carries to completion all His plans for its advance- 
ment. 

ii. What are the Attributes of the Church? 

They are comprehended in the declaration of the Ni- 
cene Creed : "I believe that there is One, Holy, Catholic 
and Apostolic Church." And in that of the Augsburg 
Confession, Art. VII : "They teach that One Holy Church 
is to continue forever." 

12, What is meant by the Unity of the Church? 
Two things : First, that all the regenerate children of 

God have an inner union and communion with one an- 
other through their common faith in Christ, a common 
love enkindled by this faith, and a presence of Christ and 
the Holy Spirit in their hearts, uniting them into one 
Mystical Body (see above, 9). 

Eph. 4:4-6 — "There is one body and one Spirit, even as also ye were 
called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one taith, one baptism, one 
God and Father of all." 

"It is called one, because, brought by one Lord, through 
one baptism, into one Mystical Body, under one Head, it 
is ruled by one Spirit, is bound together by the unity of 
faith, hope and love, professes one faith and is called by 
one calling to one heavenly inheritance" (Gerhard). 

Secondly, that there is no plurality of Churches. For 
the Church being the congregation of all the regenerate 
and believing in all ages of the world, it can have no pre- 
decessor or successor, nor any rival or ally existing con- 
temporaneously. For, however diverse their lot in life, 
or separated by time, place, race, language, nationality, 
church organization, outward rites, or ecclesiastical 
names, all who really are Christ's constitute the One 
Church. 

13. In what definition of the Church is this unity made 
prominent? 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 375 

When it is called "the communion of saints." 'This," 
says Luther, "is the meaning of this addition" [commun- 
ion of saints] : "I believe that there is upon earth a holy 
assembly and congregation composed entirely of saints, 
under one Head, even Christ, called together by the Holy 
Ghost in one faith, one mind and understanding, with 
manifold gifts, yet one in love, without sects or schisms. 
And I also am a part and member of the same, a partici- 
pant and joint owner of all the good it possesses, brought 
to it and incorporated into it by the Holy Ghost. . . . By 
means of this congregation. He brings us to Christ, and 
teaches and preaches to us the Word, whereby He pro- 
motes sanctifkation" (Large Catechism). 

'The Creed does not ask us to 'believe in the Church." 
For this belongs to God alone : and the Church is not God, 
but an assembly congregated by God. Neither do we con- 
fess, 'We believe the Church: In this respect, the 
Church's authority is beneath that of Prophets and 
Apostles, speaking or writing, and that too, not of a faith 
made elsewhere under a condition, but with absolute as- 
sent, as to ambassadors of the Lord, through whom the 
Holy Spirit spake (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:21). The 
Church, however, we never believe with such absolute as- 
sent, but only with conditionate assent, in so far, viz., as 
its words and decrees exactly agree with the oracles of the 
Apostles and Prophets. . . . But we profess that we be- 
ll-eve that there Is a Church. This means that the entire 
human race has not been rejected by God, but that there 
is a perpetual Church, which, as it began in Paradise, and 
has been preserved to the present, will last until the end 
of the world. . . . Thus, therefore, the word, 'to believe' 
refers to no external condition of the Church. For since 
faith will not cease until this visible world will have at- 
tained its end, the Church can be abolished or interrupted 
no more than faith itself. But if anv time could occur in 



$j6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

which the duration or continuance of the Church, could 
be broken or interrupted in this world, not only the cer- 
tainty of the faith and truth of the divine Word would be 
imperiled, but Christ would desert a part of His office, 
for He would cease to be the Head of His Church (Eph. 
i : 22; 5 : 23)" (Hutter, Loci, 521). 

14. What is meant by the Holiness of the Church? 
That all believing and regenerate persons constituting* 

the Church are subjects of the sanctifying influences of 
the Holy Spirit, and taken together constitute a holy or 
sanctified organism. 

1 Cor. 3:17 — "For the temple of God is holy; and sueh are ye." i Pet. 
2:9 — "Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people tor 
God's own possession." Eph. 5:25, 26 — "Christ loved the church and gave 
himself for it, that he might sanctity it." 

"This holiness consists not in an alb, a tonsure, a long 
gown, and other of their ceremonies, devised by them 
beyond Holy Scripture, but in the Word of God and true 
faith" (Schmalkald Articles, 335). 

15. What is meant by the Catholicity of the Church? 
That it is raised above the limitations of time and place. 

It is not restricted, like the Israelitic church to a race or 
nationality. The term "Roman Catholic'' is a contradic- 
tion ; for if the Church be "catholic,'' it cannot be Roman, 
and if it be Roman it cannot be catholic. We might as 
well speak of "frozen fire." Hence the contradiction of 
the opening words of Chapter I of the Decrees of the 
Vatican Council : "The Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman 
Church believes and confesses." 

Matt. 28:19 — "Make disciples of all nations." Luke 24:47. Acts 1:8 — 
"Ye shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Rev. 7:9 — "And be- 
hold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation, 
and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and 
before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes and with palms in their hands.'' 

The term "catholic" also distinguishes the one universal 
Church from particular churches, or assemblies of be- 
lievers in particular times, places or countries. Thus cer- 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 377 

tain of the Epistles were written to particular churches, 
while others, because directed to Christians everywhere, 
are called "catholic epistles.*' 

"Catholic" also designates the doctrine as that which is 
absolutely essential to Christianity. "It is manifest that 
the Church of Christ is bound to no particular abode or 
place on earth, but to the Gospel and doctrine of Christ*' 
(Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, III, 17). 

16. What is meant by the Apostoliciiy of the Church? 

This does not designate, as Rome maintains, any Apos- 
tolic succession of bishops or hierarchical government of 
the Church. Nor does it mean merely that it was founded 
through the instrumentality of the Apostles (Rev. 
21 : 14). But it affirms that it rests upon the revelation of 
God in Christ made once for all in the fulness of time, and 
transmitted, as the one, complete Gospel, admitting of 
no change, alteration, modification, evolution or addition, 
to all ages through the Apostles as chosen witnesses. It 
faithfully holds, confesses and propagates the same old 
doctrines which the Apostles taught, and represents all 
that for which the Apostles stood. 

Gal. 1 :8 — "Though we or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you 
any gospel but that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." 

Eph. 2:20 — "Being built upon the foundation ot the Apostles and Pro- 
phets, Christ Jesus, himself being the corner stone." 

17. What is meant by the Perpetuity of the Church? 

That until the end of time, Christ will have faithful wit- 
nesses upon earth. Particular churches have perished and 
may perish, but not to such extent that the line of confes- 
sors entirely vanishes, and while some disappear, others 
are found to take their place. 

Matt. 16:18 — "Upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates ot 
Hades shall not prevail against it." i Cor. 11:26 — "Ye proclaim the Lord's 
death till he come." Matt. 28:20 — "Lo, I am with you always, even unto 
the end of the world." 

Holy Scripture, on the contrary, abounds in assurances 
of the discomfiture of its enemies and of the success of its 
efforts to fulfill the Lord's commission. 



37§ A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

1 8. Is the lot of the Church one of uninterrupted 
progress? 

By no means. It bears the cross of Christ. But as 
night follows day, and day night ; as winter succeeds 
autumn, and autumn summer ; so its path through the 
ages, is in alternate light and shade. It has been com- 
pared to a boat, now in the deepest trough of the sea and 
apparently on the point of being completely overwhelmed ; 
and then again, riding in triumph upon the crest of the 
waves. Or again, to the moon in the heavens, now totally 
obscured by black clouds, then covered only by a very thin 
veil, and then bursting forth in unobstructed splendor. "A 
thousand times has this religion been on the point of uni- 
versal destruction, and every time that it has been in this 
condition, God has raised it up by some extraordinary 
stroke of His power" (Pascal). 

Every victory is only the prophecy of a new conflict 
that immediately impends ; every seeming defeat only the 
preparation for a surely approaching victory. 

19. What index is there of its real prosperity or ad- 
versity? 

"Scripture is the life of the Church ; the Church is the 
guardian of Scripture. When the Church is strong, 
Scripture shines forth ; when the Church is sick, Scripture 
is imprisoned. Thus Scripture and the Church exhibit 
together the appearance of health or else of sickness ; so 
that this treatment of Scripture corresponds with the 
state of the Church" (Bengel). 

"The Bible and the Church stand and fall together" 
(Claus Harms). (See above, Chapter XXIV, 8 c.) 

20. What scriptural foundation is there for the doc- 
trine thai hypocrites and wicked men are mingled with 
the true Church in the same outzvard assembly? 

Matt. ,13:24-43. The Parable of the Tares and the 
Wheat. They grow together until the end of time. Pre- 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 379 

mature attempts to separate them are perilous to the 
wheat (v. 30). This however is not intended to discour- 
age Church discipline for notorious offences (Matt. 
18:17; I Cor. 5:5). 

Matt. 13 : 47-50, the Parable of the Net. It enclosed 
fish of every kind. The separation occurs in the end of 
the world. 

Matt. 3: 12, the figure of the threshing-floor, where the 
separation of the chaff from the wheat also awaits the 
Day of Judgment. Judas was enrolled among the 
Apostles, and from Acts, the Epistles and Revelation, we 
learn that there were unbelievers and hypocrites in the 
Apostolic churches. 

21. Are such persons to be regarded Members of the 
Church? 

Only God can tell with certainty who they are who 
truly believe, and, therefore, are true members of the 
Church. 

2 Tim. 2:19 — "The Lord knoweth them that are his." 

Others are members of the Church solely by outward 
profession and the common use of Word and Sacraments. 
The Church has both body and soul. They are mem- 
bers of its body, but not of its soul. True members of 
the Church belong both to its body and its soul. As an 
institution for administering the Means of Grace, it is 
the Church, on its external side, that meets us. Men, 
therefore, have to be classified according to their profes- 
sion, not according to what they are at heart, for this is 
impossible to man's eye. 

22. Is the distinction between a Visible and an In- 
visible church correct? 

This distinction is not found in our Lutheran Confes- 
sions, nor is it used by Luther, but was adopted from 
Zwingli by Melanchthon in the later editions of his Loci. 
It is so thoroughly current in Protestant Theology, that 



380 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

it would be very difficult to dispense with it. But it should 
always be used with much discrimination. The very same 
distinction is meant by it, .as has been drawn above (7) 
between the Church properly so called and the Church bv 
synechdoche. The expression "Invisible," is intended to 
declare that man cannot see the line which divides all true 
believers from the unbelievers who are mingled with 
them in the profession of the same faith ; while "Visible" 
refers to the congregation or assembly of those who pro- 
fess the faith, who are heard in the preaching of the 
Word, and who are seen in the administration of the 
Sacraments. 

This distinction is open to criticism, since, in one sense, 
the Church is always visible ; for we can always know 
where it is to be found. We can tell where there is wheat, 
even though there be many tares with it. Hence it has 
been said paradoxically : "The Church is a visible-invisible 
body," i. e., visible, according to outward marks whose 
presence indicates the existence there of true believers ; 
and invisible, because the precise line which separates the 
two classes within the assembly of those who profess 
faith in Christ cannot be accurately traced by man's eye. 

"The Church properly so called, is not distinctly, but 
only confusedly visible. But the particular Church which 
is so called by synechdoche is so visible, that, as to its 
members, it can be distinctly recognized as true, and dis- 
tinguished from false or corrupt churches"* (Baier). 



*The following quoted by v. Oettingen from Hackenschmidt (Der Christ- 
liche Glaube, 1901, p. 306 sq.) is very suggestive: "It is with the Church 
as it is with the Lord of the Church. This Jesus, this man of flesh and 
blood is the Saviour, but not as this man, but as faith regards in him the 
glory of God. The Church which we see, this Christendom, these bodies 
of men whom we can reckon in statistics, divided into so many denomina- 
tions, is the Church; but not as we see it, but as we believe it to be. Well 
do I know how sad is the external condition of the Church; but, as a believ- 
ing Christian, I do not take into account its faults, its divisions, its errors, 
nor the thousands whose knowledge is so imperfect, and whose lives are 
so censurable. I look to Christ who has redeemed all these millions with 
His blood, and who has named them all with His .Name. I hear the Word 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 381 

23. How can the true Church be distinguished? 

''The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the 
Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments rightly ad- 
ministered" (Aug. Conf., Art. VII). "We say and know 
certainly that this Church wherein saints live, is and 
abides truly on earth, namely that some of God's children 
are here and there, in all the world, in various kingdoms, 
islands, lands and cities, from the rising of the sun to its 
setting, who have truly learned to know Christ and His 
Gospel. And we add the marks 'the pure doctrine of the 
Gospel,' and the Sacraments" (Apology). 

It has been alleged that in the above definition of the 
Church, Melanchthon has confounded two things. 'The 
congregation of saints" refers to the Church properly so 
called, or as some term it, the "Invisible Church" ; while 
the marks enumerated belong to the assembly of those 
professing the faith, within which the real Church is, 
viz., the Church bv svnechdoche or "Visible Church." 
But there is no such error. Every word was chosen ad- 



of God which is nowhere without efficacy. 1 trust the Holy Ghost who 
nowhere allows Himself to be without a witness. I, theretore, contess: '1 
believe that there is one holy Church; one, in spite ot all temporal divis- 
ions; holy, in spite of all improprieties that cry to heaven; just as a be- 
lieving Christian, I do not regard my faults and sins, but look to Christ, 
who is my righteousness, and as 1 entertain the assurance that I also be- 
long to tne Church of God and am a member ot the .Body of Christ. The 
true Church of Christ is made manifest in the Word and Sacraments, and 
in the walk and conversation of its living members. But what is ex- 
ternally perceptible is its clothing, the form of a servant, its beggar's dress, 
its cross. Nevertheless even in spite ot these imperfections, faith recog- 
nizes here God's Church, and, in patience and hope, bears with that in it 
which is displeasing.'" So also Philippi (Symboljk 352): "The Church is 
not only visible, but invisible. There are not two churches, but one and 
the same Church, regarded on different sides. Body and soul do not con- 
stitute two men, but they form one and the same man, one and the same 
corporeal-spiritual personality. The body has not the precedence, nor is 
the soul merely a casual supplementary accident; but the body is rather the 
organ and vehicle by which the soul expresses itself. This is our Church's 
living, real, ideal idea of the Church. The one true Church, the congrega- 
tion of believers, is at the same time visible and invisible; according to its 
faith, invisible; but according to the various forms ot manifesting this faith, 
visible." 



382 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

visedly. The Augsburg Confession means that in every 
assembly, within which the Word of God is purely 
preached and the Sacraments are properly administered, 
there are some truly believing and spiritually minded 
children of God. The marks mentioned refer to the 
Church in both senses. Wherever a true visible Church 
exists, there also is an invisible Church. The visible 
Church is a mark of the invisible. 

"In this mixed crowd, there are always some elect, i. e., 
some who accept God's Word with true faith and receive 
the Holy Ghost. For the ministry of the Word can never 

_be without fruit. It is just this true, pure little flock that 
the Scriptures call 'the Church'" (Luther, Walch's ed., 

"VI, 2398). 

24. Show that the Preaching of the Word is a mark 
■ of the Church. 

(a) "God's people have God's Word." 

Eph. 2:20 — "Being built upon the toundation ot the apostles and pro- 
phets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone." 
John 10:27 — "My sheep hear my voice and they follow me." 

(b) "God's Word has always its fruit." 

Is. 55:11 — "My word shall not return unto me void, but it shall ac- 
complish that which 1 please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto 1 
sent it." 

See a'so Matt. 18:20: "Where two or three are gathered together in my 
name, there am 1 in the midst of them." 

In the Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13, Mark 4, Luke 
8), while most of the seed is lost, a portion of it reaches 
perfection. Upon the assurance of such passages, Luther 
concludes : "God's people cannot be without God's Word, 
nor can God's Word be without a people." 

25. Whai proof is there that the Sacraments are marks 
of the Church ? 

Eph. 5:26 — "Having cleansed the Church by the washing of water with 
the word." i Cor. 12:13 — "For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one 
body." Luke 22:19 — "This do in remembrance of me." 

26. ' Are then all marks of the Church of the same 
importance? 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 383 

No. The Word is the one indispensable mark. "The 
Church is nowhere except where the Word is and they 
who believe the Word." The administration of the Sac- 
raments being commanded by the Word, belongs to the 
Word. Beside this, the essential factor in the Sacra- 
ments is the Word that accompanies them (see Chapter 
XXVI, 14-16). As the Israelites were for forty years 
without circumcision while they wandered through the 
wilderness, so there may be peculiar circumstances when 
the Church, without a ministry, may temporarily be with- 
out Sacraments. 

27. What is meant by "the pure Preaching of the 
Word"? 

Preaching is not limited to the sermons of pastors, but 
denotes "the entire public teaching of the faith revealed 
in God's Word. This is determined ordinarily by the 
Symbols or Confessions of Faith published in the name of 
the entire Church or approved by the Church. Regard is 
not to be had to the mind or private opinion of particular 
teachers ; nor if any such cherish a heterodox opinion, is 
the entire Church, on that account, to be accused of im- 
purity" (Bechmann). See Chapter XXIV, 30. But this 
statement must be qualified by the exception that, what- 
ever be the official utterances of an ecclesiastical body, its 
failure to hold representative teachers to the standard 
which it has set in its Confessions, may largely counter- 
act the force of its professed faith. 

28. When it is said that the "pure preaching'' is a 
mark, how is this to be interpreted? 

Not in the most rigid sense, as though the presence of 
the least error would deprive an assembly of the name of 
"church." The term may be used in a relative as well as 
an absolute sense. "The more purely the Word of God 
is preached in a Church, and the nearer the preaching 
and doctrine comes to the norm of Holy Scripture, the 



384 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

purer will be the Church ; the further it recedes from the 
rule of the Word, the more impure and corrupt will be 
the Church. Nevertheless it does not cease to be a Church 
because of some corruption, since God always begets and 
preserves for Himself a holy seed and spiritual sons, even 
when the public ministry of the visible Church has been 
corrupted. . . . Definitions, rides and canons ought to be 
given with respect to the ideal; and corrupt churches 
ought to be reformed, restored and purified according to 
the norm and form of the purer doctrine" (Gerhard) 
"Into the churches of the Corinthians and Galatians some 
errors had crept, but they still retained the name of 
'church.' (a) Since not all embraced their errors (1 Cor. 
15: 12; Gal. 4: 21) ; (b) they still retained some heads of 
doctrine (Gal. 3:28; 5:1); (c) they did not obstinately 
defend these errors, and hope of their conversion and re- 
formation still remained" (lb.). 

29. What errors are here guarded against? 

'They are of two classes. Some leave the foundation of 
the faith unimpaired, such as occur in very many 
churches. Others overthrow the foundation of faith ; 
some directly, as that of the Photinians, when they deny 
the divinity and satisfaction of Christ ; others indirectly, 
when an article of faith is not formally denied, neverthe- 
less an inference is made from it which conflicts with an 
article of faith, as that of the Flacians" (see above, 
Chapter VIII, 35-38). "When the pure preaching of the 
Word is said to be a mark of the Church, that is meant 
which is opposed to corruptions subverting the foundai 
tions of the faith. That is said to be a 'pure preaching of 
the word' which contains no errors or corruptions sub- 
verting the foundations of the faith" (Bechmann). 

30. What is meant by "the right administration of 
the Sacraments"? 

This has reference to the essentials, and not to the rites 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 385 

and ceremonies that accompany it. Whether the bread 
be fermented or unfermented, the wafer be given into the 
hands or the mouth of the communicated,. .whether the 
prayer in the consecration precede the words of institution 
or follow them, whether the communicants stand or kneel 
or sit in their pews, whether* the sexes commune to- 
gether or separately, etc., have nothing to do with the 
essentials. But essentials are affected when the elements 
are administered in but one form, when the Lord's Sup- 
per is changed into a sacrifice, or when the words of in- 
stitution are not used, or are changed so as not to teach 
what in their form as given by the Lord they actually 
declare. "Although such corruptions may not absolutely 
remove the Church — for some can be regenerated in such 
assembly by the Word and, as members, can constitute the 
Church, nevertheless they render the Church impure, so 
that no one, who is rightly informed in the doctrine of 
the Sacraments can join it" (Bechmiann). 

31. Do the Attributes of the Church belong to it also 
as an external body? 

They do. As the Unity of the Church properly so 
called consists in its faith in Christ, so the Unity of the 
Church as an external visible assembly consists in its com- 
mon possession of the Marks of the Church above 
enumerated. 

"Unto the true unity of the Church, it is sufficient to 
agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the ad- 
ministration of the Sacraments" (Augsburg Confession, 
Art. VII). 

John 10:16 — "And they shall hear my voice, and they shall become one 
flesh, one shepherd." 

So the Holiness of the Church is to be determined by 
the question whether it has and teaches the Holy Word 
which alone sanctifies or makes holy (John 17: 17). 

"God's Word is the treasury that sanctifies everything, 
whereby all the saints were sanctified. Whatever be the 



386 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

hour when God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read 
or meditated upon, person, day and work are then sanc- 
tified, not because of the external work, but because of 
the Word, which makes saints of us all" (Large Cate- 
chism, 403). 

Its Apostolicity and Catholicity are designations of the 
doctrine the Church has received, and its Perpetuity de- 
pends upon the promise : 

1 Pet. 1 124, 25 — "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory thereof as the 
flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower talleth: but the word 
of the Lord abideth forever, and this is the word ot good tidings which 
was preached unto you." 

32. Have not other marks been proposed besides 
those above given? 

Rome claims that there are fifteen: 1. The name Cath- 
olic ; 2. Antiquity ; 3. Long Continued and Uninterrupted 
Duration ; 4. Geographical Extent and Numerical 
Strength ; 5. The Succession of Bishops ; 6. Doctrinal 
Agreement with the Ancient Church ; 7. Union of Mem- 
bers under one Visible Head; 8. Efficacy of Doctrine; 9. 
Holiness of Doctrine ; 10. Holiness of the Life of its 
Teachers; it. Glory of Miracles; 12. Temporal Pros- 
perity; 13. Prophetic Sight; 14. Confession of Adver- 
saries; 15. Unhappy End of the Church's Enemies. 

Without examining them in detail, they all are subor- 
dinate to the one test of conformity with Holy Scripture. 

Isa. 8:20 — "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according 
to this word, surely there is no morning tor them." Gal. i :8 — "But though 
we or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other 
than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.' Ps. 119:105. 

33. To dwell upon but one of these marks, why cannot 
the succession of Bishops be admitted as a mark cf the 
Church? 

The New Testament knows nothing of diocesan bish- 
ops. The New Testament bishops are identical with pres- 
byters, elders or pastors. (See Chapter XXX, 7-9.) If 
it be claimed that the bishops of today are the direct suc- 
cessors of the apostles, we answer that if a mere external 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 387 

succession be considered as determining claims, then the 
priesthood of Caiaphas is to be preferred to that of Jesus. 
For Caiaphas was in the direct line, while Jesus was of 
the order of Melchisedek, that is out of the ordinary line 
of succession (Heb. 7:3). Paul discriminates often be- 
tween the external and internal succession, particularly 
in Rom. 4, where he shows how grace rendered believers 
spiritual children of Abraham. His argument is that 
under the New Testament, it is only a spiritual succession 
that is to be regarded. 

Rom. 4:11 — "That he might be the father of all them that believe, though 
they be in uncircumcision." 

Matt. 3:8 — "Say not within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; 
for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones, to raise up children 
unto Abraham." 

The sermon of Stephen in Acts 7, was a defence of 
Christianity against the advocates of a local, personal 
succession, in which he triumphantly maintains the Chris- 
tian Church's true doctrinal succession of patriarchs and 
prophets. 

Moreover, that the local 'and personal, apart from the 
doctrinal succession is invalid, is manifest from the Apos- 
tolic predictions concerning the departure from the faith 
of those in the line of regular succession, and the conse- 
quent duty of avoiding them (Acts 20 : 30 ; 2 Peter 2:1; 
2 Thess. 2:4). 

34. Who are the members of the Church? 

As above noted, all regenerate and believing children of 
God, including adults not yet baptized who believe in 
Christ, and true believers in Christ who have been un- 
justly excommunicated from some particular church. 
Others are "in the Church" but not "of the Church" (i. e., 
the opposite of John 17: 11, 14). "It is one thing to be 
a part, but quite another to be a member of the Church" 
(Hutter, 519). 

35. Is the declaration, "Extra ecclesiam nulla salus 



388 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

est," "Outside of the Church there is no salvation," 
correct? 

Yes, but not in the sense in which it is ordinarily used. 
It is correct because all who believe are members of the 
Church through their faith in Christ. The expression is, 
therefore, equivalent to : 'There is no salvation without 
faith." But if it be interpreted as meaning that none are 
saved unless they be recognized as externally connected 
with some visible and particular church, it can be accepted 
only with some qualifications. While baptism is ordinarily 
necessary to salvation, and such baptism can come only 
through the Church, and so as to connect the person bap- 
tized with the Church, there may be extraordinary cases 
where persons are brought to faith in Christ through the 
reading of Holy Scripture and devout books, or the mem- 
ory of religious instruction received in childhood, without 
any direct connection with a particular church. 

36. But would this justify one in saying that any are 
saved without the instrumentality of the Church? 

No. The Communion of Saints or congregation of be- 
lievers directly or indirectly is instrumental in the salva- 
tion of all who attain faith in Christ. Even in such extra- 
ordinary cases, as those above mentioned, there is no real 
independence of the Church and its agencies. What is 
extraordinary, is that the influence of the Church reaches 
the individual in a different mode from that which is 
usual. When some of the mutineers of the ship "Bounty" 
on Pitcairn's Island, in their isolation for many years from 
the civilized world, came to repentance and faith, and even 
are said to have established a Christian congregation, it 
must not be thought, that the Church or "communion of 
saints" had nothing to do with it. For it was under these 
circumstances, that the preaching of the Word through 
the Church heard many years before, asserted its power. 

Hence the Large Catechism says : "Outside of this 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 389 

Christian Church, there is no forgiveness, as also there 
can be no sanctification" (446). "The Holy Ghost has ap- 
pointed a congregation upon earth by which He speaks 
and does everything. . . . We believe in Him, who, 
through the Word, daily brings us into the fellowship 
of this Christian people" (447). So, as in many other 
places, Luther says in his "Commentary to the Galatians" 
(Erlangen ed., Latin, 2: 257) : "The allegory teaches that 
the Church ought to do nothing but teach the Gospel 
rightly and purely, and thus beget children. Thus we are 
all in turn fathers and children, for we are begotten one 
of the other. I have been begotten through the Gospel of 
others ; and they in turn beget others, and thus this gen- 
eration will continue until the end of the world. . . . 
For she [viz., Sarah, as a figure of the true Church] 
teaches, nurses and bears us in her womb, and on her 
breast and arms, and fashions and perfects us according 
to the form of Christ, until we grow into a perfect man. 
Thus all things are done through the administration of 
the Word." 

To the same purport a recent theologian has said : "Ex- 
cept through this communion, no one has ever become a 
child of God, either in the first years of Christianity or to- 
day. Even the disciples of Jesus could follow the call of the 
Lord only in the fellowship (Acts 2:42, 46; 4 : 29 sqq.), 
which the Holy Ghost created, that they might attain full 
assurance of faith. This occurred particularly in the 
case of even the miraculously called Apostle Paul, who 
became a joyful witness of the Gospel only through the 
address of Ananias (Acts 9:17 sqq.), and the baptism 
which he received (Acts 22: 16). . . . The Holy Spirit 
works indeed where and as He wills (John 3 : 8 sqq.), but 
according to the Lord's order, He has bound Himself to 
the Word and Sacraments, in order that within the 
communion of the Means of Grace, and through them, 
He may lead individual souls to Christ, as to their only 



390 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

Mediator and Saviour. Only in such communion do they 
attain the full, and joyful certainty of their being in a 
state of grace and children of God. No child is born 
without a mother" (Van Oettingen, "Dogmatik," II, 
2: 480). 

37. What inference do we derive from this? 

That it is not simply the Means of Grace that are effi- 
cacious to bring salvation and to nurture the divine life 
in men ; but that for the application of these means, so as 
to reach the end designed of God, truly believing children 
of God are necessarv, in whose hands and on whose 
tongues and through whose lives, the Holy Spirit works, 
in and by the Word which they have taken to heart. 

Matt. 18:19 — "If two of you shall agree on earth touching anything, 
that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who is in 
heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there 
am I in the midst of them." 

In accord with this principle, Chemnitz in his Examen 
(I, 65, 66), shows that the gift or charism of interpret- 
ing Scripture, in its more difficult passages belongs to the 
Church. "God willed that the gift of interpretation should 
exist in the Church. . . . This gift God did not want to 
be either despised or rejected, but to be reverently em- 
ployed, as an organ and means for discovering and un- 
derstanding the true and sound sense of Scripture. . . . 
But this gift of interpretation is not outside of the Church 
in the unregenerate ; it is the light of the Holy Spirit en- 
kindled in the heart of the godly." 

This, however, must be carefully guarded against the 
Donatistic error that the Means of Grace, as administered 
by the unregenerate, are inefficacious. For, in preaching 
the Word and administering the Sacraments, the godless, 
in their official position, are only channels, through which 
the spiritual force of the true "communion of saints," i. e., 
of the Ploly Spirit acting in this communion is exerted. 
They owe their position and influence to the fact that they 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 391 

are regarded as and in a certain sense actually are repre- 
sentatives of God and His people. As the senseless type 
and pages become the means of transmitting intellectual 
and moral forces, so whatever be the organ that brings to 
men the Word of God, it is always more nearly or more 
remotely mediated by the communion of saints. Directly 
or indirectly, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are imparted 
through the fellowship of believers. 

Thus, whenever any important advance is made within 
the Church, it is traceable to some sanctified personality, 
through whom a force previously long and widely diffused 
throughout the Christian communion is at last concen- 
trated in a representative. Paul's life cannot be under- 
stood simply by the sudden crisis on the road to Damas- 
cus, but must be studied as it emerges from the spiritual 
life which .underlay the historical and external course of 
Judaism, as this, again, was stimulated and directed by 
unanswerable evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was not 
only the promised Messiah, but, by His resurrection from 
the dead, had proved that He is God over all, and on the 
throne of heaven. 

Nor was Luther an isolated phenomenon in Church 
History. That he was a true growth out of the spiritual 
life of his predecessors, in no way contradicts the fact 
that God raised him up for a special mission. Beneath the 
surface of a corrupt Church, the life of the true Church 
existed, like a stream forced for' a time through an under- 
ground passage. In him this life was concentrated from 
various directions. It is not so much this or that teacher 
who determined his career, as it was the common religious 
life which came to him through family influences before 
the schools of the Church could reach him. This life was 
indeed sustained and developed by a course, which led 
through Staupitz to Tauler, and through Tauler to Au- 
gustine, and through Augustine to Paul, and through 



392 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

Paul" to Christ. It gained force and intensity through 
every soul whom he heard in the confessional, or with 
whom he corresponded or conversed concerning religious 
topics. The congregations to which he preached and 
the attentive students to whom he lectured, and the tens 
of thousands whom he reached through his pen, acted and 
reacted upon him as well as he upon them. If Luther 
lived in Melanchthon, Melanchthon also lived in Luther. 
What the former taught the latter put into admirable 
form, upon which the former again built. If Luther 
actually furnished the material for the "Loci Communes, " 
Melanchthon was not without his influence also on even 
the Small Catechism. Thus "the communion of saints," 
through the ever active Spirit of God impelling it, con- 
stantly leads to the Holy Scriptures and applies their ma- 
terial for spiritual growth to the mind and heart of the 
individual. 

38. What estimate, therefore, should be placed upon 
the significance of the individual in the service and pro- 
gress of the Kingdom of God? 

As in secular history, the individual is, under God, 
largely the product of the various elements that have pre- 
ceded and now surround him, so in the experience of the 
Church, there is a common religious spirit as the educa- 
tive force whereby all Christians are influenced and men 
are trained for their responsibilities and opportunities. 
No one within the Church can be properly estimated, ex- 
cept by the study of the common religious life, that has 
entered into his being from without, and moulded him as a 
member of "the communion of saints." He is to be con- 
sidered not simply as an isolated unit, with respect to the 
rest of humanity, but is indebted to the faith both of pre- 
decessors and cotemporaries, through whom God has 
awakened and sustained his faith. There is "a spirit of 
life born of God's Spirit which like a vivifying breath 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 393 

pervades all history, sometimes clearly expressed and 
testifying to the truth in thoughts and words, and at other 
times hidden in a different form, and sometimes forced 
into the background and traceable only where the soul of 
the Christian converses with God in prayer*' (Thomasius, 
"Dogmengeschichte," I, 19). By such spirit, pervading 
the Church as a community, all Christians are born, 
trained and moulded. 

39. Why does the Apology of the Augsburg Confes- 
sion indignantly repudiate the charge that the Lutheran 
conception of the Church mas that of "a Platonic State"? 

Because the ideal state described by Plato in which all 
things were to be in common was a pure fiction. But 
that upon which the Reformers insisted, with its com- 
munity not of bodily, but of spiritual things, is a reality, 
although an object not of sight, but of faith. There is a 
spiritual house which God is building on earth, composed 
of living stones. Each stone rests on other stones, and 
supports still others, all being cemented together into one 
spiritual structure. It is not only a building but a living 
organism, with head iand eyes and ears and brain and 
heart and feet and hands and lungs and arteries and veins, 
each minute part supplying the want of some other part. 
As a spiritual organism, its influences are spiritual, its 
power is spiritual, its means are spiritual. All its life and 
efficiency come from the omnipresent and ever living 
Holy Spirit dwelling in the heart of each believer, and di- 
recting the testimony of his life and his prayers towards 
the edification of all the children of God on earth. 

40. But how does this agree with the doctrine that the 
Gospel deals with us not as a community but with in- 
dividuals ? 

True, indeed, it is that, "in matters of faith, every man 
shall give an account of himself to God," and that, as 
every one is born by himself, and must die by himself, so 



394 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

also he is regenerated and justified as an individual — a 
doctrine which the Sacraments especially teach. But this 
is not separatism. In the preaching of the Gospel, the in- 
dividual and the community act and react upon one an- 
other. The individual is for the community, and the 
community is for the individual. The progress of the indi- 
vidual is dependent upon the common life of the Church 
which he receives, while the progress of the Church is 
dependent upon the constant deepening of the spirituality 
of the individual. Christianity elevates man, first by seek- 
ing him out as an individual, and then by giving him a 
name and place among "the people of God" (i Peter 
2: 10). 

41. But is not Religion purely a matter between God 
and the individual ? 

No. It makes one "a member of the Church," i. e., he, 
thereby, finds a place' in which he is utilized for the com- 
mon good (Rom. 12:4-8, etc.). The heroes of the faith 
are those in whom this thought has become intensified. 
With them, self and party constantly yield before the com- 
mon good. Pastors and congregations languish as they 
are self-centered. As in secular life, the condition of 
progress is "public spirit," and intelligent "public opin- 
ion" is a far more potent factor than the tyranny of po- 
litical parties or even the influence of legislation ; so, for 
a healthful religious life, the wide outlook of the Gospel 
and the community of interests which this establishes and 
develops, accomplish more than all external efforts at 
ecclesiastical organization. The strength of an outward 
organization depends upon whether or not it be a true 
expression of inner oneness. First unity, then union. 

42. Where in the Holy Scriptures do we find the most 
extended argument to ihis effect? 

In the Epistle to the Romans, which is properly a dis- 
cussion of the world-embracing mission of Christianity, 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 395 

in the light of which all extended distinctions as those of 
Jew and Gentile, Greek and Barbarian, are unworthy of 
notice. It strikes at the root of all dissensions among 
those who apprehend the great facts of the common lot 
of all men under the same law and the same condemna- 
tion, and of their common interest in the same Christ and 
the same grace and the same redemption and the same 
Holy Spirit and the same glorious destiny in eternity ; 
and, on this ground, treats of duties to the Church, and 
the government and society, and of the true motives of 
the Christian life. 

43. What daily reminds us of the same principle of 
the Church as a community? 

The Lord's Prayer. For in it each child of God prays 
not simply for himself, but also for all other children of 
God. In the "our" and "us" of the Lord's Prayer, all 
Christians on earth pray with one another and for one 
another. I ask nothing for myself except by including in 
the petition all others who are in Christ. It is the prayer 
of the one Christian family on earth around the one fam- 
ily altar. 

44. Hozu is this common or community spirit of the 
Church maintained? 

m 

The public services of each particular congregation 
have as their end not only instruction in God's Word and 
the cultivation of inward godliness in the use of the 
Means of Grace, but also the support and development of 
the common life that exists about that center. 

To estimate the importance of presence at the assem- 
blies of believers, solely by the standard of one's own per- 
sonal edification derived from what he hears, is an indica- 
tion of a very narrow form of Christianity. 

The association of Christian people and of congrega- 
tions, upon the basis of the same faith, for united Chris- 
tian effort, has an influence more far-reaching than the 



396 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

goal which is directly in view. Much as may be directly 
accomplished in missionary and evangelistic and eleemo- 
synary work, the greatest gain after all is in the contact 
of Christians, otherwise separated, with each other, and 
the reactive force of their fellowship. Even the greatest 
of inspired men confesses to unknown and obscure Chris- 
tians at Rome : 

Rom. 1:11, 12 — "For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some 
spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that 1 with you 
may be comforted, each of us by the other's faith." 

That is, Paul could derive from their fellowship what 
his call to the Apostolate and his admission, in ecstatic 
rapture, to the third heaven could not give. I Cor. 7 : 14 
also teaches that, through the believing wife, the common 
spirit of life in the Christian community reaches the un- 
believing husband with its influences directed to make of 
him an entirely different rraan, and, as has happened in 
numberless instances, to bring him to repentance and 
faith. 

The value of a Christian education, and of liberal train- 
ing under Church influences, lies not merely in the learn- 
ing of doctrine and the criticism of secular topics from a 
Christian standpoint, but to a great degree, in the concen- 
tration upon the individual, at a formative period, of the 
common Christian spirit of the Church's life. 

45. Hozv do the Sacraments declare the importance 
of the community thought in the Church? 
One Baptism unites all the regenerate. 

1 Cor. 12:12 sq. — "For as the body is one and hath many members, and 
all the members of the body being many, are one body; so also is Christ. 
For in one Spirit we were all baptized unto one body, and were all made to 
drink of one Spirit." 

The Holy Supper is not only the communion of Chris- 
tians with their Saviour, but also that of Christians with 
one another (see Chapter XXVIII, 47, 48). For this 
reason, private communion, except for the sick, is not en- 
couraged by our Church. 

1 Cor. 10:17 — "Seeing that we who are many, are one Bread, one Body: 
for we all partake of the one bread." 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 397 

Hence in the earliest Communion Prayer of the Chris- 
tian Church, of which we have knowledge, this apposite 
thought occurs : 

"Just as this broken bread was scattered over the hills, 
and having been gathered together became one, so let Thy 
Church be gathered together from the ends of the earth 
into Thy kingdom" (Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 
IX ; cf. also close of Exhortation to Communion in "Com- 
mon Service"). 

46. What two spheres, then, does this communion 
comprise? 

There is an inner communion of faith, hope, love, 
prayer and all the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit 
which unites all Christians, however widely separated 
externally, or unknown to one another. There is an ex- 
ternal communion in the common use of the Word and 
Sacraments. Both have their degrees. The closest ex- 
ternal communion is where believers recognize each other 
as brethren in a common confession of the same faith, 
and by unitedly partaking of the Lord's Supper. But 
such communion exists also in a lower degree, where the 
testimony to the truth, the sermons, the edifying books, 
the hymns, the prayers, the holy lives and triumphant 
deaths of believers encourage and strengthen those whom 
they have not met personally, as the writings of Augustine 
and the hymns of Bernard, and the witnesses to Christ in 
every age and every land appeal to us. How far, such com- 
munion may extend, the great variety of sources from 
which our hymn books and manuals of devotion are com- 
piled, suggests."' The external communion is the start- 



'"Moravian hymn and Roman chant 

In one devotion blend, 
To speak the soul's eternal want 

Of Him, the inmost friend; 
One prayer soars cleansed with martyrs' fire, 

One choked with sinners' tears. 
In Heaven both meet in one desire, 

And God one music hears." — Lowell, "Godminster Chimes.' 



398 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

ing point through which these influences extend in num- 
berless directions, so that the prayer made in the closet 
encircles the earth with its results, and the unpretending 
but sincere word spoken or written in obscurity, ends its 
mission for Christ only at the consummation of all things. 
There is no denomination or circle of Christians, however 
rigorous and isolated it may be, that is not influenced by 
every testimony for Christ, and every administration of 
grace prompted by the Holy Ghost among other Chris- 
tians. Rome may continue to anathematize Luther, but the 
effect of Luther's testimony will constantly work even 
within its walls, through which some struggling rays of 
light still penetrate. 

47. Is the Lutheran Church true and catholic ? 
"True" it is, in so far as and because in it, the Word is 

preached purely iamd the Sacraments are administered 
according to their institution. "Catholic" it is, in so far as 
and because it holds the catholic doctrine delivered by 
Christ and His apostles for all times and for all places. 

48. But how can it be a true Church when it has so 
many divisions? 

The unity of the Church, as an external body, lies in its 
faith and confession (32). Divergencies in organization 
or in practice growing out of historical antecedents, differ- 
ences of nationality or language, or the convenience of its 
members do not affect this unity. 

"Just as dissimilar spaces of day and night do not in- 
jure the unity of the Church, so we believe that the true 
unity of the Church is not injured by dissimilar rites in- 
stituted by men" (Apology, 169). 

49. But how is Rome's objection concerning the re- 
cent origin of our Church to be met? 

We answer : 

"We have no new Bible, but the old Bible, which the 
Church Universal, of all times, has acknowledged as ca- 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 399 

nonical. We have no new Baptism, or one diverse from 
that which was instituted by Christ. We have no new 
Lord's Supper ; neither do we mutilate it, nor celebrate it 
otherwise than Christ administered it, nor apply it to 
idolatrous, superstitious and unscriptural uses. We have 
no new form of absolution other than that which we read 
was used by Christ and His Apostles, and of which we 
have a summary in the words: 'Son, be of good cheer; 
thy sins are forgiven thee.' We firmly embrace the an- 
cient symbols, the Apostles', the Nicene and the Athana- 
sian, and prefer them far above all other Confessions or 
Symbolical Books. Nor, in the worship of God, can any- 
thing new be detected in our churches. We abhor all rites 
and ceremonies to which the idea either of merit or of 
absolute necessity is attached. But, in the exercise of 
Christian liberty, we freely observe whatever promotes 
good order and propriety."' Then, on the other hand, we 
arraign Rome for the folowing novelties : 

"It is new, that man can be justified before God not 
only in the name and by the merit of Christ, but by his 
own works." "It is new and contrary to the Apostolic 
canon in the Synod at Jerusalem, that man, by his own 
strength can bear the yoke of the Law, and make satis- 
faction thereto." "It is new that the authority of the 
Church exceeds that of Holy Scripture." "It is new that 
the Pope of Rome is Head of the Universal Church, as the 
Vicar of Christ." "It is new that baptism is to be 
administered to bells, that they may thereby have power 
to scatter lightning and thunder and tempests." "It 
is new that laymen are allowed the use of the Sacra- 
ment of the Eucharist only in one form, that Sacra- 
ments confer grace ex opere operato, that the Sacra- 
ment of the Lord's Supper is a propitiatory sacrifice, 
that the body of Christ ought daily to be offered to 
God the Father in a bloodless manner for the sins, pun- 
ishments and guilt of the living and the dead." "It is new 
that every sin, in whatever way committed in thought, 



400 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

word and deed, must be confessed individually to the 
priest, with enumeration of all circumstances, that could 
change the form of the deed.'' "It is new that the value 
of the Absolution depends on the worthiness and intention 
of the priest." "It is new that man can satisfy God for 
the punishments of sins, both eternal and temporal." "It 
is new that indulgences can be purchased for a certain 
price." "It is new that priests are to be bound to per- 
petual celibacy." "It is new that the Virgin Mary and 
Saints are to be invoked, and that their merits profit those 
invoking under everlasting life" (Hutter, L. T., 525, sq.). 

50. Is the Lutheran the true and catholic Church? 

It is one thing to say that it is "true and catholic," and 
quite another to declare that it is "the true catholic 
Church." "By reason of quantity, or extent, it is not 
catholic, i. e., universal, but particular; since it does not 
embrace in its limits all the regenerate and elect of all 
times and places. While, therefore, it is an orthodox, it 
is a particular Church" (Hollaz). "Notwithstanding the 
importance which belongs to ecclesiastical distinctions, no 
particular Church can claim to be the only Church abso- 
lutely, and, therefore, to be the only body that imparts 
salvation, but the Church exists and has its. place in earth, 
in so far as Jesus Christ is believed and confessed. The 
one Church of Christ, therefore, extends through all these 
particular churches, and baptism, provided only it be 
Christian baptism, confers membership therein. Every 
other claim, as, e. g., that too readily advanced by Rome, 
is fanaticism" (Luthardt, "Kirchliche Glaubenlehre," 
512).* '■-■'■ 

*Philippi (Symbolik, 356): "It" [i. e. the Lutheran Ch.] "numbers among 
its members not only those within its walls, but some in the Catholic Church 
itself. For all those belong to it who, even without withdrawing trom 
Catholic Church connections, have been raised above Catholic externahsm 
and Catholic work-righteousness. Of such, there have been not a few at 
all times; .. .According to the view of our Church, therefore, the way 
of salvation within the Catholic Church is of course rendered difficult, but 
is not made impossible." 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 401 

The Lutheran Church, as the true Church, is not abso- 
lutely the Church of the Lord, viz., the spiritual body of 
Christ. For not all its members belong to this Body ; 
since many are nothing more than those who make confes- 
sion only by mouth, and are not true believers. Then, 
too, there are such members in other churches.'' w 

'The One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, or the True 
Church, which is also the Spiritual Body of Jesus Christ, 
pervades all church communions. It is the one fold of the 
One Shepherd, which is not simply to be expected in the 
future, but is present from the beginning through all 
periods of time and in spite of the prevalent ecclesiastical 
divisions, and which, therefore, need not and cannot and 
dare not be attained by false unions. But, the fact that 
salvation is to be found in all does riot render it a matter 
of indifference to what Church communion one belongs. 
For it is not a matter ^f indifference whether a Church 
communion, by its pure and uncorrupted preaching of the 
Gospel, render the way of salvation plain and readily 
accessible, or, by its mingling of truth and error, obscure 
and makes it difficult" (Philippi, "Glaubenslehre," 
IV, 19). 

The two extremes of Unionism and of Ecclesias- 
ticism, whether in its Roman or in any other so-called 
High Church form, both fail by attempting to comprise 
within external lines of fellowship all whom they claim 
to be true children of God. Lutheranism, while most clear 
and decided in its warnings against error wherever found, 
and earnest in avoiding all alliances which may in any 
way compromise the clearness of its testimony to all that 
it learns from God's Word, or which may prevent it from 
uttering its protests, nevertheless, has in its Confessions 
formally stated what has been taught by the three theo- 
logians above cited. 

51. Where is this stated in our Confessions f 



402 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

"Neither are we dreaming of a Platonic State, but we 
say that this Church exists, viz., the truly believing and 
righteous men, scattered throughout the whole world" 
(Apology, Latin, 165). "Some of God's children are here 
and there, in all the world, in various kingdoms, islands, 
lands and cities, from the rising of the sun to its setting" 
(Apology, German, 165). "It is not our purpose to con- 
demn men who err from a certain simplicity of mind, 
much less entire Churches." "We have no doubt whatever 
that in those* Churches which have hitherto not agreed 
with us in all things, many godly men are found" (Book 
of Concord, Introduction, pp. 16, 17). 

The authors of the Formula of Concord, in the same 
introduction, refer to the persecutions of the French and 
Dutch Reformed with their atrocities in the Massacre of 
St. Bartholomew and the horrors wrought by the Duke 
of Alva in the Netherlands, and protest: "It has never 
been our purpose to occasion trouble or danger to the 
godly who today are suffering persecution." They de- 
clare further, that "for the shedding of that innocent 
blood ■«, reckoning will be demanded at the awful judg- 
ment of the Lord, and before the tribunal of Christ," and 
affirm the "fellowship of grief," they have with these 
martyrs. ,, 

Luther went so far as to say: "I believe and am sure 
that even under the Papacy the true Church remains. . . . 
Some among the mass are true Christians ; for although 
they are misled, nevertheless, by God's grace, they are 
wonderfully preserved" (Erlangen ed., 18:9). 

52. Hozv is this consistent with the severe criticism 
and condemnation declared in portions of our Confes- 
sions against those who dissent from our doctrine? 

The Church, as such, is not responsible for the state- 
ments of individual writers, or for the spirit in which 
such statements may be uttered. But so far as the Con- 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 403 

fessions of the Church are concerned, such severity is 
found only where their authors have believed the Luth- 
eran doctrine to have been wilfully misrepresented and 
even persecuted, notwithstanding ample opportunity to 
learn the truth. The historical relations of the time and 
place of a controversy must always be studied, in order 
to appreciate the precise force and value of a condemna- 
tion, in a document which the controversy has occasioned. 

53. What is the special office and calling of the 
Church? 

To administer the Word and Sacraments. The Church 
saves only by bringing the saving Word. 

54. Whence has it this authority and commission? 
From the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, 

who has entrusted it with the Power of the Keys. 

Matt. 16:19 — "I will give unto thee the keys ot the kingdom ot heaven; 
and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
18:18 — "What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in 
heaven ; and what things soever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
heaven." John 20:23 — "Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven 
unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." 

'This is a power or commandment from God of preach- 
ing the Gospel, of remitting and retaining sins, and of ad- 
ministering the Sacraments'' (Augsburg Confession, Art. 
XXVIII). 

55. Does not this power belong, however, to a class or 
order within the Church? 

As will be seen later, there are no classes or orders 
within the Church. The Christian Ministry is not an 
order but an office. It is an instrumentality whereby the 
Church acts. In other words, it is the executive of the 
Church in performing this work. This is proved as 
follows : 

In Matt. 18: 18-20, the Power of the Keys is said to 
exist wherever "two or three are gathered together in 
my name." Wherever, then, there is a Christian congre- 
gation, there is authority to communicate to penitent and 



404 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX, 

believing individuals the Gospel promise of the gratuitous 
forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake. 

"Just as the promise of the Gospel belongs certainly 
and immediately to the entire Church, so the Keys belong 
immediately to the entire Church, because the Keys are 
nothing else than the office whereby this promise is com- 
municated to every one who desires it" (Schmalkald 
Articles, 343). 

56. Can the Church, at its ivill, dispense with the min- . 
isterial office f 

By no means. But it is for the Church to call, appoint 
and ordain those who are to exercise the functions of 
this office. 

57. Explain (he call or appointment by the Church? 
The authority delegated by Christ rests ultimately in 

any congregation of two or three believers. Such as- 
sembly, as the spirit of Christ influences it, will act with 
reference to the interests of the entire Church, and ac- 
cording to a fixed order. But it is never to be forgotten, 
that all the power of the Church exists in its smallest 
congregation, and is not derived by the local assemblies, 
through large Particular Churches, and by Particular 
Churches from the Church Universal, and by the Church 
Universal from Christ. The New Testament conception 
of Christ, dwelling in the heart of the believer, and mak- 
ing him a king and priest unto God, does not provide for 
a long and complicated series of agencies whereby we may 
reach Christ and Christ may reach us. 

58. What inevitably results? 

The gathering of believers into local congregations and 
their further organization into congregational unions or 
Particular Churches, according to the necessities or the 
peculiar circumstances of the time or place. As the 
Church assumes a more settled form in the lands in which 
it is planted, and extends its missionary, benevolent and 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 405 

educational operations, a form of external organization, 
known as "the Representative Church" inevitably follows. 
United activity always means attention to details of or- 
ganization, which, however, according to the New Testa- 
ment conception, must be in accord with the principle 
of Christian Liberty. 

59. Hoiv is the organisation effected? 

Generally in accordance with what has been gradually 
developed in the experience of the Church. The Acts of 
the Apostles and the Epistles show the first beginnings 
of this process in response to needs that were then felt. 
But not even the practice of the Apostolic Church is a 
rule which is absolutely obligatory on the Church of suc- 
ceeding periods. "The Apostles commanded to abstain 
from blood (Acts 15:29). Who observeth that now-a- 
days? And yet they do not sin who observe it not" 
(Augsburg Confession, Article XXVIII). 

Nevertheless the highest respect is paid to what has 
been found serviceable in the past, and no break with his- 
torical antecedents is justifiable, unless a rule or practice 
is clearly recognized as having survived its usefulness. 
"We cheerfully maintain the old traditions made in the 
Church for the sake of usefulness and tranquility ; and we 
interpret them in a more moderate way to the exclusion of 
the opinion which holds that they justify" (Apology, 
224). 

60. What matters may be particularly classed under 
the head of Church Traditions ? 

All regulations for its government, the constitutions of 
congregations and Church Bodies, the mode of calling 
and inducting its ministry, the times and forms of public 
service, the lessons, the hymns, the prayers, the cere- 
monies connected with the administration of the Sacra- 
ments and other ministerial acts, etc. 



406 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

61. What general principles must guide their use? 

(a) "Consciences are not to be burdened as if such ser- 
vice were necessary to salvation" (Augsburg Confes- 
sion, Art. XV). 

(b) "The Church of God of every place and every time 
has, according to its circumstances, the authority, power 
and right, to change, to diminish and to increase them, 
without thoughtlessness and offence, in an orderly and 
becoming way, as at any time may be regarded best for 
good order, Christian discipline and the edification of 
the Church" (Formula of Concord, 645). 

■(c) "No Church should condemn another, because one 
has less or more external ceremonies not commanded by 
God than the other, if otherwise there is agreement among 
them in doctrine and all its articles, as also in the right 
use of the Holy Sacraments" (lb., 524). 

Hutter ("Loci," 518) declares that uniformity "is 
neither possible, nor useful, nor necessary. It is im- 
possible because of the great diversity of causes that de- 
termine the introduction of such ceremonies. . . . It is 
useless, not only on account of the danger of a new Jew- 
ish bondage (Gal. 5:1), but on account of the fear of 
offence that might be occasioned because of the omission 
of this or that very unimportant ceremony. . . . It is un- 
necessary, for human traditions do not promote salvation, 
and hence, in accordance with human liberty, can be ob- 
served or omitted." 

62. But may not a rite or ceremony become the badge 
of a confession ? 

Yes ; and under such circumstances, it is no longer a 
matter of indifference. A blue ribbon on the breast is of 
itself an adiaphoron ; but when it is recognized as a mark 
of those who hold a certain doctrine or who adhere to a 
certain party, it would be a falsehood for one not belong- 
ing to the number of those using it, to adopt it as his own, 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 407 

in order to derive advantages which otherwise he could 
not claim. 

"At a time when a confession of the heavenly truth is 
required, when the enemies of Gods Word desire to sup- 
press the pure doctrine of the Holy Gospel, the entire 
Church of God, yea every Christian, but especially the 
ministers of the Word are bound, according to God's 
W r ord, to confess the godly doctrine . . . and, even in 
such things that are truly and of themselves adiaphora, 
they must not yield to the adversaries or permit these 
adiaphora to be forced upon them" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 645). 

63. What notable illustration of this principle is found 
in Holy Scripture ? 

The effort of certain Judaizing partisans in the Apos- 
tolic churches to enforce the continuance of circumcision 
as necessary to salvation. When no such claim was made, 
Paul did not object to its retention, as Acts" 16: 3 shows. 
But when the attempt was made to force all Gentile con- 
verts to accept it, he maintained that the time had come 
for its absolute repudiation. It had become a badge of 
Judaistic narrowness and exclusiveness, unworthy of 
those who had been called to the freedom of the Gospel. 

Gal. 5:2 — "Behold 1 Paul say unto you, that, it ye receive circumcision, 
Christ will profit you nothing." 

A similar decision is called for when the demand is 
made for the abolition of an adiaphoron upon the ground 
that its retention jeopardizes or even excludes salvation. 

64. Is then one at entire liberty, according to his own 
judgment, to comply or not with the regulations concern- 
ing adiaphora which the Church, from time to time, may 
make? 

"Such ordinances it behooveth the churches to keep for 
charity and quietness' sake, so that one offend not another, 
that all things may be done in order and without tumult 
in the Church (i Cor. 14:40; Phil. 2:14)" (Augsburg 



408 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

Confession, Article XXVIII). "For the sake of avoiding 
scandal, we should observe them in proper place" (Apol- 
ogy, 298). The duty of obedience, when they are not 
urged as necessary for salvation is based upon the Fourth 
Commandment. 

1 Pet. 2:13 — "Be subject to every ordinance ot man tor the Lord's sake.'" 

65. What doctrinal principle should decide all liturgi- 
cal regulations and practices ? 

'The chief service of God is to teach the Gospel" (Apol- 
ogy, 225). "The children sing psalms, in order that they 
may become familiar with passages of Scripture ; the 
people also sing, in order that they may either learn 
or pray'' (lb.). "Ceremonies ought to be observed, 
to teach Scripture, and that those admonished by the 
Word may derive from it faith and the fear of God, 
and, thus may pray. . . . Nowhere has it been written 
that the act of learning lessons not understood, is of any 
profit, or that ceremonies profit, not because they teach or 
admonish, but ex op ere operato, because they are thus 
performed or witnessed" (Apology, 259).* 

"There should be no theatrical pomp, no courtly splen- 
dor, but a propriety that would declare by external rites 
the place we give to the Word and Sacraments, and the 
other exercises of the Church, and that would lead out- 
siders to respect the Word and Sacraments, and the meet- 
ings held by Christian congregations" (Chemnitz, "Exa- 
men"). 



*Here also belongs the solution of the Language Question. The Gospel 
being for all languages and peoples, a faith that cannot be successfully- 
taught and preached except in some one particular language, cannot be 
Gospel. "I have no regard for those who are so devoted to one language 
and despise all others; for I would like to educate youth and men, who 
might serve Christ and converse with men also in foreign lands, that it 
might not be with us as with the Waldenses and Bohemians, who have so 
confined their faith to their own language, that they cannot speak intelli- 
gently and clearly with any one, until he first learn their language. But 
the Holy Ghost did not so in the beginning. He did not wait until the 
whole world came to Jerusalem and learned Hebrew, but gave various 
tongues for the Apostles to speak wherever they went." — (Luther, "Ger- 
man Mass.") 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 409 

66. What gives a Confession of Faith or a doctrinal 
decision of a synod its validity? 

Nothing but the scriptural truth which it contains. The 
decrees of the Synod of Nice have stood the test of time, 
not through the labors of ecclesiastical politicians and dip- 
lomatists who may have had much to do with the precise 
form in which they were phrased, nor through the vote of 
the synod and the approval of the Emperor. The resolu- 
tion of an ecclesiastical council only proposes to Christian 
hearts and consciences, i. e., to the jury of the Christian 
community, for generations to come, a declaration that 
must stand or fall on its own intrinsic merits. It stands 
before the Christian community of all ages only like a 
resolution that has been moved and seconded in parlia- 
mentary bodies. The Augsburg Confession is approved 
not because of the names of the princes who signed it. All 
the representations of certain writers who have tried to 
trace the political and other unworthy motives that deter- 
mined the composition of other of our Confessions, might 
be conceded, and yet not affect their force. That which 
gives them their influence is their fidelity to God's Word. 
The hold which even systems of error may have for ages, 
is traceable to a certain amount of truth which underlies 
them, and is the salt which may long delay their total dis- 
solution. No weight of numbers or authority of organiza- 
tion determines the decision. It must be that of the truth 
apprehended and recognized by the body of believers that 
constitutes the heart and kernel of the external Church. 

2 Cor. 4:2 — "By the manifestation ot the truth commending ourselves 
to every man's conscience in the sight of God." 

The Church is called upon not to enforce blind submis- 
sion to what it has already attained, but to use the clear 
truth as an instrument of appeal to consciences, and to 
maintain its authority by persuasion, and not by external 
force of any kind. "The Word which has created the 
heavens and the earth must do the work, or nothing in 



4IO A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

the universe can do it. I will preach, I will talk, I will 
write; but never will I force any one by violence" (Luther, 
Er. ed., 28:219). : This is the difference between the 
two forms of government : The godly win men by means 
of the Word ; the wicked force to a prescribed course by 
means of the sword" (lb., 12:383). "Unser Herr Gott 
thut nicht Grosses mit Gewalt" (lb., 57:32). 

67. Are there them Open Questions? 

Such there were undoubtedly in the Apostolic Church. 
The significance of the great facts of Christianity and of 
their relations were apprehended with different degrees 
of clearness. Even after the gift of the Holy Ghost at 
Pentecost, the Apostles, the intimate companions and im- 
mediate disciples of Christ were led by a gradual process 
and through many conflicts to a full conception of the uni- 
versal scope of Christianity, and of the freedom which the 
Gospel brought. It was the especial mission of Paul to 
be the expounder and champion of these principles. The 
narrow prejudices of Judaism were much more deeply 
rooted and extensively ramified in all their ideas than 
those who had been converted to Christianity themselves 
knew. With gentleness and tenderness, but at the same 
time with a firmness, that could not be turned from its 
course, those thus erring were dealt with. Rom. 14: 1-6; 
1 Cor. 8:9-14; Acts 15: 1-29, declare the principle, and, 
at the same time, show the limits of Christian toleration. 

Such was also the case at the Reformation. The de- 
cision with which Luther spoke and the rigor with which 
he acted against opponents are to be explained, not so 
much from the failure of these antagonists to reach a 
standard of faith that was a law to his own conscience, as 
from the fact that persistent and hostile attacks, and not 
unfrequently the arts of intrigue and diplomacy had been 
directed against what he prized more dearly than life 
itself. He esteemed them, as Paul did the Judaizing 



Chap. XXIX.] THE church. 411 

teachers, against whom the Epistle to the Galatians was 
written. But that, when such spirit was laid aside, pa- 
tience was exercised even where complete doctrinal agree- 
ment was not reached on absolutely all points, is shown 
by the Wittenberg Concord of 1536, where a satisfactory 
basis for church fellowship was found, even when there 
was a difference upon a minor point, viz., the communion 
of the unworthy.* 

68. What forms of error are in conflict with the true 
doctrine and the practical efficiency of the Church? 

Heresy, Schism, Sectarianism, Syncretism and Secu- 
larism. 

69. What is Heresy? 

The obstinate advocacy and propagation of error di- 
rectly attacking the foundations of the faith. The ety- 
mology suggests an arbitrary or self-determined choice 
separating one from the unity of the Church. 

70. What is Schism? 

A violent rupture of the external organization of the 
Church destroying its peace and interrupting the mutual 
love that should prevail among Christian brethren. A 
schism is not necessarily accompanied with doctrinal un- 
soundness. 

71. What is Sectarianism? 

An unjustifiable emphasis upon distinctive characteris- 
tics externally separating those who profess to be Chris- 
tians. When a particular form of Church organization, 
among a number that are equally valid ; or a particular 
mode of administering a Sacrament ; or a particular form 
of Christian experience ; or connection with some particu- 
lar ecclesiastical bodv, is made a test of Christian fellow- 



*For a most discriminating and earnest treatment of Church Toleration, 
and an eloquent appeal for its exercise, see Luther s "Light Sermons" 
preached at Wittenberg in 1523, on his return from the Wartburg. Er- 
langen Edition 28:202-284. 



412 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

ship, independently of any regard to conformity to the 
marks of the Church, or as supplementing them, we find 
Sectarianism. It makes central what, in reality, belongs 
only to the circumference of Christianity, and forces to the 
circumference what is central. It makes, for instance, or- 
dination by a bishop in the line of what is affirmed to be 
"Apostolic Succession," the test of a true minister of the 
Gospel, and is willing to extend such ecclesiastical fellow- 
ship even to those holding errors on what is fundamental 
to Christianity. Or in its most extravagent forms, it re- 
quires a style of clothing, or mode of wearing the hair, or 
absence of buttons or of other trifles, as tests of a 
Christian profession. Among Lutherans in America, the 
sectarian spirit is apt to enter when a particular synod or 
group of synods united in a general organization so es- 
teems and extols itself as to ignore the rest of Christen- 
dom and represents God's promises to the universal 
Church as applicable in all their extent only to some par- 
ticular circle (ecclesiola in ecclesia). Sectarianism is 
characterized by the violation of the Confessional prin- 
ciples that have been stated under 23 sqq. 

72. What is Syncretism? 

The ignoring of doctrines essential to the clear and full 
confession of Christianity, in the effort to establish a basis 
of union in externals. Sectarianism and Syncretism often 
coincide. The Syncretism may be exercised only with 
respect to those ready to support some particular form of 
Church government or practice, or to unite in some or- 
ganization, as when, e. g., the "Historic Episcopate" is 
proposed as a basis, and all the results of the struggles of 
the Reformation are surrendered ; or it may be universal- 
istic in its scope and endeavor so as to make the basis of 
external union and fellowship absolutely co-extensive 
with that of the existence of some degree of Christian life, 
as when nothing more is demanded than the "Articles" of 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 413 

the Evangelical Alliance, or Melanchthon's dream of "a 
consensus of good men." 

73. Why is Syncreiism to be condemned? 

Because the commission to the Church is explicitly "to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you" 
(Matt. 28:20). A true servant of Jesus Christ cannot 
allow any restriction upon his proclaiming what he be- 
lieves to be God's Word. 

Acts 20:27 — "I shrank not from declaring unto you all the counsel ot 
God." 

This is ''the good deposit" which he is to keep without 
impairment (2 Tim. 1:14). 

Any Church alliance, therefore, which impairs the clear- 
ness or force of his testimony in regard to any doctrine 
or any practice involving doctrine is to be avoided. 

74. Docs the rejection of Syncretism mean, therefore, 
that all Church fellowship with those who have not at- 
tained the same degree of light and knozvledge with one's 
self is to be renounced and condemned? 

One has no right to separate himself from those whose 
attitude is not that of actual and uncompromising oppon- 
ents of the truth,* until after the most patient efforts to 
remove their prejudices have failed, and ample time has 
been afforded for them to see their error. On the con- 
trary, it is one's duty, wherever placed by God's call, like 
the prophets of the Old Testament or like our Lord and 
His Apostles, in the synagogues, to bear unremitting tes- 
timony to his confession, until such opponents themselves 
break off the relation. 

Acts 13:46 — "It was necessary that the word x>t God should hrst be 
spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves un- 
worthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." 

The teacher is not to withdraw himself from his ig- 
norant pupils in order to seek association with cultivated 
scholars, nor the pastor from his unappreciative people in 
order to find a select circle of more saintly souls, nor the 



"See Chapter xxxii:8. 



414 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

physician to abandon his hospital for a health resort where 
only sound applicants are admitted. It is a wise provision 
of Providence that not all the truly godly people on earth 
are gathered into one corner by themselves, but that they 
are scattered throughout all lands and all denominations 
of professed Christians. Thus the real Church, or "com- 
munion of saints," penetrates everywhere with its influ- 
ences, as a tree which sends its roots and tenderest and 
most minute fibres through a greater space beneath the 
soil, than is covered by the trunk and branches that bask 
in the sunlight. The aim of the Christian life is not to 
cultivate spirituality by avoiding conflicts, but, ever 
through the contrasts and frictions, to bring the truth to 
clearer testimony and to deepen the convictions of those 
thus exercised. 

It is quite a different matter, however, to seek associa- 
tions with errorists who are in open and avowed antagon- 
ism to the faith of the Church, or to any of its articles. 
Where Providence has. .fixed our lot, we are to abide and 
testify, as long as our protests will be heard ; but where 
such is not the case, we cannot, without a very clear call, 
put ourselves in such relations that the clearness of our 
testimony, may be misunderstood. 

75. Is this ihc principle and spirit of the Confessions? 

"Just as in all families and in all states, concord should 
be maintained by mutual offices, and tranquility cannot be 
retained, unless men keep secret and forgive certain mis- 
takes, so Paul commands that love exist in order that it 
may preserve concord in the Church, bear with the harsh- 
er manners of brethren, keep secret less serious mistakes, 
prevent the Church from flying apart into various schisms, 
and enmities and factions and heresies arising from the 
schisms. For concord must necessarily be rent asunder 
wherever either the bishops impose upon the people heavi- 
er burdens, or have no respect to weakness in the people'* 
(Apology. 123-4). 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 415 

The great moderation of the Formula of Concord con- 
cerning the article of the Descent of Christ to Hell, is a 
model for theologians of later times. 

"It is our unanimous advice that there should be no dis- 
putation concerning it, but that it should be believed and 
taught only in the simplest manner. . . . It is sufficient to 
know that Christ descended to hell . . . but how this oc- 
curred we should reserve until the other world, where not 
only this point, but also still others will be revealed, 
which we here simply believe and cannot comprehend 
with our blind reason" (P. 522). 

A similar moderation characterizes Article XI of the 
same document concerning Predestination and Election 
where the Formula declares all that the Gospel states con- 
cerning this mystery, and warns against the manifold 
speculations concerning it, in which reason is only too 
fond of indulging. "For curiosity has always much more 
pleasure therewith, than with what God has revealed to 
us in His Word" (lb-., 658). 

To these statements may be added the words of Me- 
lanchthon in his Loci (3d edition) : "Let us not praise 
those tramps who wander around and unite with no 
church, because they nowhere find their ideals realized ; 
something is always lacking in the life or the discipline. 
But let us seek the Church, in which the articles of faith 
are correctly taught and defended ; let us unite with it, 
and heed and love it as it teaches, and join our prayers 
and confession with those of its members." 

j6. Hozv then is the line to be drawn, within zvhich 
such charity is io be exercised? 

A distinction is made, on the one hand, between the 
hearers of the Word, i. e., the private members of churches 
and those who are commissioned as the public teachers 
of the churches, i. e., pastors and teachers of theology, 
who represent and shape the public teaching of doctrine. 



416 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

The tests required of the latter are much greater than 
those exacted of the former. 

A distinction is made also between questions that have 
never entered into discussion and been settled by a con- 
fessional utterance of the Church, and those which have 
been thus settled. It is a wrong to the Church to allow it 
to be again confused on a subject over which it has already 
struggled, and, as a result attained entire clearness of 
conviction. What is an open question, at one time, may 
cease to be such under different circumstances, and par- 
ticularly with a greater degree of light and knowledge. A 
distinction is also to be made between purely incidental 
allusions, illustrations, quotations and arguments in our 
Confessions, and those statements which are the professed 
topics of discussion and decide the controversies that have 
occasioned the preparation of a particular article. 

yy. What is Secularism ? 

The turning aside of the Church from its office of 
preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments, 
into extensive business operations more or less immediate- 
ly or remotely connected with the preservation and ex- 
tension of the Church as an outward organization. As the 
Church has a body as well as a soul, and that body has 
secular relations, some activity within this sphere cannot 
be avoided, but it is possible for a communion by such en- 
tanglements to lose much of its spiritual influence. Let 
it never be forgotten that the abuses which called forth 
the Reformation culminated in zeal for the worldly dis- 
play of the Church, and precipitated a conflict by un- 
evangelical efforts made in collecting the needed funds. 
It was the secular side of the Church's administration 
which did violence to its proper and most sacred func- 
tions, as the administrator of Word and Sacrament to the 
hearts and consciences of sinful men as individuals. It 
was the exaltation of external organization above the 



Chap. XXIX.] the church. 417 

spiritual body, the communion of saints. In proportion as 
the attention and activities of the Church are absorbed in 
its external relations, the great principle is in danger of 
being overlooked, that "the Church is principally a fellow- 
ship of faith and the Holy Ghost in hearts" (Apology, 
162). 

78. In what does Secularism culminate? 

In Anti-Christ, the incarnation and embodiment of the 
principle which transforms the Church into a worldly 
government with political machinery and perpetuates or 
repristinates the false conceptions of religion maintained 
in Apostolic times by a worldly and anti-Christian Juda- 
ism (Chapter XXXVII, 13 sqq.). 

79. Against what other tendencies must especial care 
be taken? 

(a) That which so emphasizes correctness of teaching, 
as to make the special object of justifying faith (see 
Chapter XVIII, 15-18), not the merits of Christ, but the 
dogmas of the Church as true statements of scriptural 
doctrine ; or which instead of regarding the Holy Scrip- 
tures as an instrumental cause, elevates them to the place 
of the meritorious cause of our justification before God. 

(b) That which so emphasizes the importance of the 
spirituality and inwardness of Christianity, as to be intent 
chiefly on spiritual exercises and the emotional elements 
of the Christian life, rather than on Christ and the great 
objective facts of His salvation and the truths that are 
taught in Holy Scripture. 

(c) That which makes one particular type or variety 
of Christian experience, the standard according to which 
all must conform, or elevates the privileges enjoyed by 
some few into rules to be followed bv all, or which iudsres 
scriptural truth as important or unimportant according 
to its assumed value for edification. 



418 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXIX. 

80. What are the three leading types of ecclesiastical 
doctrine and life? 

"The character of Catholicism consists in externalism, 
spiritless corporeity, realism degenerating into coarse 
empiricism and materialism. On the other hand, in ex- 
treme antagonism to Catholicism, that of the Reformed 
Church consists in bodiless intellectualism and idealism 
degenerating finally into complete subjectivism and spirit- 
ualism. The Lutheran conception of doctrine is the true 
original mean between the two extremes. It presents 
the unity and interpenetrating pervasion of the inward 
and outward, the bodily and the spiritual, the real and the 
ideal. We have a God who is true man ; Spirit who is 
true Word ; an invisible Church which is at the same time 
visible ; the earthly element as the actual vehicle of the 
heavenly, etc. [a divine purpose evoking, sustaining, con- 
troling and directing the free acts of men]. The Luth- 
eran Church, therefore, does not enter into union with 
either of these extremes, but is itself their actual union. 
In the cause of external union, it cannot surrender its 
complete for a half truth.* It can only invite to its full 
truth such as are absolutely in error, or who stand half 
in truth and half in error" (Philippi, "Symbolik," 
372 sq.). 

The Roman Catholic Church begins its entire system 
with its doctrine of the Church. Every other doctrine is a 
logical deduction from the pure externalism that there 
prevails. "Faith is assent to that which the Church 
teaches," and "the Church is as readily comprehensible 
to the senses as the Kingdom of France or the Republic 
of Venice." It culminates and centers in the Priesthood, 
the Priesthood in the Episcopate, the Episcopate in the 
Pope, whose definitions and interpretations of doctrine 



*The writer quoted does not mean by "half truth" to say that to the 
Lutheran Church the departures of the Reformed from its standard of a 
pure faith are as important as those at the other extreme. 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 419 

are final. Theology is thus restricted to the ecclesiastical 
pronouncement of Councils and Popes. 
- The Reformed Church starts with the attempt to derive 
a conception of God from the Holy Scriptures, and to 
frame its statement of all other doctrines of revelation by 
logical deduction from this premise. Its fundamental 
doctrine is that of Predestination. 

The Lutheran Church starts with the revelation of God 
in Jesus Christ upon the background of the universal sin- 
fulness and helplessness of man. Justification by Faith 
alone is the center towards which all ravs of its teaching 
converge, and whence again they proceed. 

81. How is this distinction modified? 

According as men or particular Church bodies are bet- 
ter or worse than the general type which they represent. 
Rome changes chiefly by developing its type to a greater 
extreme. But the various Protestant bodies act and react 
upon each other, dividing Churches and theologians into 
various schools or tendencies, as the Reformed may be 
influenced by either Roman or Lutheran elements, or as 
Lutherans mav be influenced bv either Roman or Re- 
formed principles. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

THE MINISTRY. 

1. Through what instrumentality does the Church 
chiefly administer the Means of Grace? 

Through the Christian Ministry. 

2. What is the Ministry? 

An office entrusted to certain persons, specially pre- 
pared and set apart for its duties. In the wide sense, 
every office in the Church, is a ministry, and the distinc- 
tion between ministers and 'laymen is one between the 
office-bearers and the non-official members of the Church. 



420 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

In a narrower sense, the term belongs only to those com- 
missioned by the Church to preach the Gospel and admin- 
ister the Sacraments. 

3. Is the designation of a special class of men to till 
this office simply a matter of convenience? 

It is not within the liberty of the Church to dispense 
with the office. For it rests upon a divine institution. 

1 Cor. 12:28 — "God hath set some in the church, hrst apostles, secondly 
prophets, ttnrdly teachers, then miracles, then divers kinds ot healings, 
helps, governments," etc. Eph. 4:11 — "And he gave some to be apostles, 
and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 
for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering." 

The form and mode of office may vary. Some of these 
forms are but temporary and belong only to the period of 
the founding of Christianity ; but the permanency of or- 
ganization under bearers of an office pervades all that has 
been written concerning the Apostolic Church. A min- 
istry is indispensable to the establishment, growth and 
proper administration of the Church. 

4. Is this classification of offices absolute for the 
Church of later times? 

No ; for the Acts and the Epistles show that the organi- 
zation of the Church gradually progressed, according to 
its needs, and had no divinely formulated Constitution, 
transmitted by inspiration, to be inflexibly adhered to for 
all time. Modifications and combinations of offices, on the 
one hand, and, on the other, a separation of duties and 
offices arose, as the Church passed from its missionary to 
its settled form, and as provisional plans were succeeded 
by more permanent adjustments. As. Dr. H. M. Muhlen- 
berg constantly realized in laying the foundations of the 
Lutheran Church in America, the Ecclesia Plantanda is 
one thing ; the Ecclesia Plantata, another. 

5. What was the ultimate result? 

The Apostles as such had no successors ; for they were 
for all lands and ages. When the period of extraordinary 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 421 

was succeeded by that of only ordinary gifts of the Spirit, 
there was a merging of a number of these offices into one, 
that of the local pastor, teacher, preacher and chief presby- 
ter or president of the congregation. The Church, in its 
freedom, from time to time instituted other offices, to 
administer the duties connected with its common and 
united interests. 

6. Is there no distinction in the New Testament be- 
tween Presbyters and Bishops? 

None whatever. Paul sends for the presbyters of 
Ephesus (Acts 20: 17), and speaks of them as "bishops" 
(v. 28). According to Phil. 1:1, there were a number of 
bishops in the church at Philippi. 1 Tim. 3 and Titus 1, 
in enumerating the duties of church officers, know only 
bishops and deacons. Nowhere is there any co-ordination 
of bishops, presbyters and deacons. The testimony of 
Titus 1 : 5, 7 is very clear. After declaring the necessity 
to "appoint elders in every city," and enumerating the 
qualifications of the bearers of the office, Paul continues, 
"For a bishop must be blameless." The allusion would be 
without any meaning if the presbyterate were regarded a 
different office from the episcopate. 

7. Is there any Confessional declaration on this 
subject? 

Yes in the Appendix to the Schmalkald Articles (349) : 

"By the confession of all, even of the adversaries, it is 
clear that this power by divine right is common to all who 
preside over churches, whether they be called pastors or 
elders or bishops. Accordingly Jerome openly teaches 
that all who preside over churches are both bishops and 
elders. . . . Jerome teaches that it is by human authority, 
the grades of bishop and of elder or pastor are distinct. 
... By divine authority, the grades of bishop and pas- 
tor are not diverse." 



422 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

8. Is there any serious dissent from ihis even among 
scholarly advocates cf diocesan episcopacy? 

None whatever. "It is a fact," says Bishop Lightfoot, 
probably the most scholarly representative of the Church 
of England in the Nineteenth Century, "now generally 
recognized by theologians of all shades of opinion, that in 
the language of the New Testament, the same officer in 
the Church is called indifferently 'bishop' (episkopos) and 
''elder' or 'presbyter' (presbyteros)' (On Philippians, 
p. 95). Even Thomas Aquinas, the scholastic whose writ- 
ings have been officially endorsed by the Papal Chair, de- 
clares, "as to name, bishops and presbyters formerly were 
not distinguished. The Apostle applies the name 'bishop' 
to both." High churchmen endeavor to establish the 
divine right of diocesan bishops by claiming that they are 
the successors of the New Testament Apostles, while 
priests are the successors of the New Testament bishops. 
A complete refutation of this theory has been made by 
Bishop Lightfoot in his excursus on "The Christian Min- 
istry," in volume above mentioned. 

9. If the distinction betzveen bishops and presbylers 
be not made by divine right, is it admissible? 

Not when urged as a matter of necessity, or insisted 
upon as a condition of fellowship. But Diocesan Episco- 
pacy is a perfectly legitimate form of Church government, 
when adopted upon principles of expediency, and in the 
spirit of Christian freedom. The general principle that 
has been followed in our Church is to accept whatever 
form of organization has been prevalent, unless it be urged 
from wrong foundations, or be connected with doctrinal 
errors. Hence, at the Reformation, there would have been 
no break with the organization then existing, if the bish- 
ops had kept within the limits allowed by the Gospel. 
"The bishops might easily retain lawful obedience, if they 
would not urge men to observe such traditions as cannot 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 423 

be kept with a good conscience" (Augsburg Confession, 
Art. XXVIII). 

10. Is it proper to call Ministers "priests"? 

While etymologically the word "priest ' corresponds to 
''presbyter," it is always used and understood in the sense 
of a member of an order, set apart to offer sacrifices. The 
New Testament knows of but two priesthoods, one is that 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, "the great High Priest" of the 
Christian faith (Heb. 4: 14), and the other that of the 
spiritual priesthood of believers (1 Peter 2:5, 9; Rev. 
1:6), comprising all true children of God by faith in 
Jesus Christ. The offering of the former was His life, 
as an expiatory sacrifice for the sins of the world; that of 
the latter is the eucharistic sacrifice of prayer, praise and 
thanksgiving, the cheerful self-surrender of body and soul 
to the service of God. Beyond these, there neither is nor 
can be any priesthood. Every minister of the Word should 
be, like all the regenerate and believing in his congrega- 
tion, a spiritual priest, but he is such, in virtue of his per- 
sonal and individual relation to God, and not in any offi- 
cial capacity, or as a minister. 

Neither in his official acts, is his representative capacity 
chiefly that of the priesthood, comprising all the believing, 
in his congregation. A minister of the Gospel is, first of 
all, a representative of God to men, one divinely called to 
preach the Gospel, in God's name, and to apply its prom- 
ises to individuals in the Sacraments. He can offer 
nothing to God in man's behalf, but offers to roan that 
which God has provided (see Chapter XXVIII, 35). In 
offering to God the prayers and thanksgivings of the con- 
gregations, he is only one of their number, acting as the 
spokesman or voice of the whole body. In so doing, he 
does not intercede or pray to God for them ; but it is his 
office to pray with them and lead the oral declarations of 
the prayers of their hearts. 



424 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

ii. But is not the office of teaching and preaching and 
administering the Sacraments a prerogative of the spir- 
itual priesthood? 

The spiritual priesthood and the ministry are entirely 
distinct institutions. The former has reference to the 
personal relation of the individual towards God, and his 
direct and immediate access, through Christ, to the 
Throne of Grace. The latter has reference to the public 
performance of duties that are to be discharged, according 
to direct instructions in God's name. The spiritual priest- 
hood is the prerogative of the individual ; the ministry is 
found only where there is a congregation, i. e., two or 
three gathered together in Christ's name (Matt. 18:17, 
20). There is no scriptural foundation for the idea that, 
simply for the sake of good order, there is a transfer to 
one individual of rights that belong to each individual in 
a congregation. The functions of the ministry belong not 
to the uncalled, but the called members of the Church, 
i. e., those called to this particular office. To use an illus- 
tration, the Presidency of the United States is not an 
office whose duties abstractly speaking inhere in every one 
of the many millions of its citizens, but which, to avoid a 
conflict of authority, they transfer to one man. It is an 
office to which no citizen has the right, unless he be duly 
elected and inaugurated ; since it belongs to the whole 
nation and not to the individual. This distinction which 
is true of an earthly government, applies with even greater 
force to that which is of divine appointment. A man's 
call as a Christian is one thing; his call as a minister is 
another. 

12. Give the statement of onr Confessions on this 
subject. 

"No one should in the Church publicly teach or ad- 
minister the Sacraments without a regular call" (Augs- 
burg Confession, Art. XIV). 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 425 

13. Scripture proofs? 

Rom. 10:15 — "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" Tit. 1:5 — 
"Appoint elders in every city." Heb. 5:4 — "No man taketh the honor unto 
himself, but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron." 

As "ambassadors of God" (2 Cor. 5 : 20), as "stewards 
of the mysteries o£ God" (1 Cor. 4:1), they must have 
credentials of their appointment subject to the tests of 
their brethren in Christ, and their fellowmen. As the 
Power of the Keys, or authority to administer the Word 
and Sacrament belongs to the congregation as a unit and 
not individually (Matt. 18:20; see Augsburg Confession, 
Art. XXVIII), it is for the congregation as a unit, to 
decide who they are to be, that, in this particular, are to 
act as its executives. 

14. Has the form of the Call to the ministry been uni- 
form in all ages? 

A distinction is made between the immediate call, such 
as Moses received by the voice of God from the burning 
bush (Ex. 3: 10), and by which the Prophets of the Old, 
and the Apostles of the New Testament were designated, 
or whereby one expressly mentioned by God was called 
through some one else, whom God had directed to act for 
Him, as was Aaron, through Moses (Ex. 4: 14; 28: 1) ; 
and the mediate call, through the Church acting in God's 
name. 

15. Is there any divinely-prescribed order according 
to which the Church proceeds in giving the Call? 

No one can be a minister without a call ; but the precise 
mode has been left to the liberty of the Church, guided by 
the ordinary operation of the Holy Spirit through the 
Means of Grace. Here, as elsewhere, the experience of 
the Church has resulted in the prescription of certain 
principles of procedure, which, for good order's sake, 
are to be faithfully observed. 

16. What is the order as we now find it? 

It comprises some matters that are actually preparatory 



426 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

to the call ; others belonging to it in the most special sense; 
and still others, which, while most closely connected with 
it, simply confirm, declare, ratify and attest it. 

17. What prepares for the Calif 

The series of agencies whereby one is led to enter upon 
a course of theological training and to be approved as a 
candidate for the ministry. In a settled condition of the 
Church, men are no longer called directly into the office. 
But, just as the apostles accompanied their Master for 
three years, and a considerable period intervened between 
the immediate c?ll of Paul and his entrance upon his 
office, so years are required before one can attain that 
knowledge and maturity of conviction and judgment 
needful for the duties of the ministry. In every case 
there have been influences, emanating from the com- 
munion of believers that have led to the resolution to seek 
the ministry. 

1 Tim. 3:1 — "If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good 
work." 

18. Is the Call to the ministry cm inner conviction of 
duty zvrought by the Holy Spirit upon man's heart ? 

"We answer : We grant that God, by an inner impulse, 
inspires the purpose to assume the office of the ministry, 
without regard to its perils and difficulties. To this be- 
longs the secret impulse which leads some to study the- 
ology. We grant also that in accepting the holy office, no 
one should be influenced by avarice or ambition or any 
vicious desire, but by the sincere love of God and the de- 
sire of edifying the Church. If any one be disposed to 
call these two praiseworthy dispositions 'a secret call/ in 
the sound sense, we do not greatly object. Meanwhile we 
warn, first, that, on account of such inner or secret call, 
no one ought to assume the duties of the ministry, unless 
an external and regular call of the Church be added, lest 
the doors, be opened for Anabaptistic confusions and en- 
thusiastic revelations. ... We warn also, in the second 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 427 

place, that the call of that person does not immediately 
cease to be a call, whose mind, in undertaking the minis- 
terial office, was perhaps contaminated in the beginning 
by the taint of ambition or avarice or any other impure 
motive" (Gerhard, VI, 48; see also above, Chapter 
XXVI, 23). 

19. What other agencies may be mentioned as prepar- 
ing the way for the Calif 

The expressed desire of parents ; the suggestion of a 
pastor or teacher or friend, particularly at some critical 
point in life as confirmation, or at an illness, or under 
severe affliction or bereavement; the general opinion of 
some circle of Christian friends determined by the interest 
and efficiency of the person concerned in Sunday-school 
or other congregational work, or other forms of Christian 
labor. The general acquaintance of pastors' sons with the 
lives and works of their fathers, often occasions the desire 
to follow them in the holy office. 

20. What is the next stage in preparing the way? 
The Church's approval of the person as one deemed 

worthy of becoming a candidate for the office, and enter- 
ing upon a course of preparation. This has to do not only 
with the beginning of his course, but proceeds throughout 
its various stages, constituting a continuous examina- 
tion, not only bringing the candidate under the eves of 
representatives of the Church, but also continually re- 
vealing him more and more to himself. It culminates 
when he obtains the final official approval of the Church 
in his recommendation for ordination. 

21. What is the Call in the most special sense? 

The election and designation of a person for the work 
of the ministrv. 

22. By whom is the Call given? 

The right to call is not limited to any class within the 
Church. It belongs neither to the ministry alone, nor to 



428 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

the laity alone ; but to both in due order. That the min- 
istry is not a self-perpetuating order, but that the voice of 
the laity is also to be heard in the choice of pastors, is 
manifest (a) from the gift of the Power of the Keys to 
the whole Church, as is taught in Matt. 16 and 18; (b) the 
testing of teachers required of the people (Matt. 7: 15; 
John 10 : 27 ; 1 Thess. 5 : 19, 20, 21 ; 1 John 4:1); and (c) 
especially from the practice of the Apostolic Church 
(Acts 1:23; 6:3; 14:23). 

"For wherever the Church is, there is the authority to 
administer the Gospel. Wherefore, it is necessary for the 
Church to retain the authority, to call, elect and ordain 
ministers. And this authority is a gift exclusively given 
to the Church, which no human power can wrest from the 
Church, as Paul testifies (Eph. 4:8). Where there is, 
therefore, a true Church, the right to elect and ordain 
ministers necessarily exists. . . . This a most common 
custom of the Church testifies. For formerly the people 
elected pastors and bishops. Then a bishop was added, 
either of that church or a neighboring one, who confirmed 
the one elected by the laying on of hands" (Appendix to 
Schmalkald Articles, 350). 

If, however, the ministry be without a voice in deter- 
mining who are to be ministers, and this be limited to the 
votes of the laity in local congregations, those very per- 
sons are excluded whose training and experience best fits 
them for judging the qualifications of candidates. 

23. Is there, then, no true ministry except where the 
Call comes from both portions of the Church f 

We may adapt here the words of Gerhard concerning 
the giving of absolution, which, while belonging to the 
whole Church is exercised only through ministers : "We 
distinguish between the power and the exercise of the 
power. The power is and remains with the Church ; but 
the execution of the power is through the presbyters of 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 429 

the Church, i. e., the ministry and those who represent the 
rest of the Church. The power is and remains his, in 
whose name and by whose authority it is exercised. But 
the exercise of ecclesiastical power, in calling and electing 
ministers, in loosing and binding sins, is in the name and 
by the authority of the entire Church" (VI, 57). 

Since, also, the Church is "wherever two or three are 
gathered together in Christ's name" (Matt. 18:17, 20), 
it is not a matter of absolute necessity that both or all 
classes of the Church be represented. Because, however, 
of manifest abuses that have entered and are apt to enter 
when both are not guaranteed their rights, that mode of 
extending the call is best where provision is made for the 
participation of both ministers and laymen. 

24. How is this accomplished? 

When the examination and the approval of the exam- 
ination are alloted to the ministers, and the voice of the 
laity is heard, either in the local congregation, or repre- 
sentatively in Synods in calling a candidate to a definite 
field of labor. 

25. But arc all laymen, or all communicant members 
of churches competent to give a discriminating judgment 
as to the qualifications of a candidate \f 

The exercise of the right should be guarded by such 
constitutional provisions, limiting the electors and other- 
wise qualifying it, as to prevent abuses as far as possible. 

26. When is a modification cf this principle justifiable? 

In a formative condition of the Church, whether occa- 
sioned by a confused condition as the result of deteriora- 
tion of doctrine and life, or connected with missionary 
activity. Thus when the peasants in their XII Articles 
of 1525 claimed the right of each congregation to elect its 
own pastor, Luther answered that as long as the people 
did not furnish the support, they could not claim that one 
whom they elected should be supported by the magis- 



430 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

trates. The designation of the rulers as bishops pro tem- 
pore and the entire Episcopal system of Church govern- 
ment which was adopted as the first form for our Luth- 
eran Churches in Germany, originally as a purely tempo- 
rary expedient, are to be explained upon this ground. 

2J. Where a regularly called pastor cannot be had, is 
it never proper for a layman to preach or teach publicly 
in the Church? 

"When a Christian is among heathen ignorant of the 
Christian faith, then, according to his ability, he can teach 
others and propagate Christian doctrine at the prompt- 
ings of love and necessity. But where a church has been 
established, let no one, without an ordinary call, under- 
take the holy office'' (Hollaz). 

Similar occasions may occur temporarily in commun- 
ities in a Christian land, not adequately provided with a 
ministry, or churches. Lay activity may very properly 
supply the deficiency, but not as a permanent matter. 
Where a congregation results and the provision has its 
sanction, the ministry springs up in virtue of the call that 
is given. 

28. How about the preaching of theological students? 

"There is a distinction between preaching exercises and 
the regular office of preaching. The sermons of students 
are exercises in which they modestly offer to the Church 
services that are hereafter to be rendered, but do not claim 
for themselves the regular office of preaching" (Hollaz). 
This is not, however, a completely satisfactory statement. 
The preaching of students is justifiable only upon the 
ground that it is in response to a regular call of the con- 
gregation or its representatives for a temporary service. 
The distinction is between a call for a more permanent 
and one for a merely temporary discharge of ministerial 
functions. 



Chap. XXX.] THE MINISTRY. 43I 

29. Is the Call which constitutes the ministry limited 
to the pastorate of a local congregation? 

Many so maintain. But even in Apostolic times, the 
ministry of preaching the Word and administering the 
Sacraments was not confined to a form so restrictedly 
local. Wherever there are general interests of the Church 
that are served by preachers and teachers filling such 
offices as are needed and in accordance with clear 
calls, there are also true ministers of the Church. What 
a congregation of Christian people can do in the call of a 
pastor, a congregation of congregations in the represen- 
tative Church can also effect. This limitation, however, 
must be made; Such call must always carry with it the 
appointment to distinct work. For the ministry is an 
ofrice, not an order. 

30. // one called to the ministry ceases to discharge its 
duties is he any longer a minister? 

There is no ministry where there is no ministering. He 
who does not minister is no minister. This ministry must 
always be one of the Word and Sacraments. There are no 
ministerial duties that authorize the demitting of this 
function. The Roman Catholic doctrine of a character 
indelibilis imparted by ordination cannot be admitted, and 
yet it underlies the claim which men make to be regarded 
ministers, when they neither teach the Word nor adminis- 
ter the Sacraments, and who refer to their ordination as 
permanently investing them with the ofrice. "The duty of 
a priest is to preach, and unless he does so, he is just as 
much a priest, as the picture of a man is a man. It is the 
ministry of the Word that makes a priest or bishop" 
(Luther, "Babylonian Captivity"). 

31. What is Ordination? 

The formal induction into his office of one who has 
been called to the ministry. It is the solemn, public rati- 
fication and attestation of the Call. 



432 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

32. Docs Ordination make one a minister? 

The Call is all that is essential. Ordination is import- ■ 
ant but not essential. One called but not ordained is in 
reality a minister; only, for the sake of good order, he 
should hold his rights in abeyance until ordained, or the 
Call may be conditioned in explicit terms upon his ordina- 
tion. As it is not the inauguration of the President of the 
United States but the votes of the people, that gives him 
the title to his office, so it is not ordination, but the being 
rite locatus, i. e., the Call in due form and order, that 
decides one's claims as a minister. 

33. Is not Ordination a divinely prescribed ceremony ? 
No. See Chapter XXVI, 18. 

34. What is the ordinary form of Ordination? 
Prayer with the laying on of hands (1 Tim. 4:14; 

5 : 22 ; 2 Tim. 1:6). 

35. What is the chief thing in Ordination? 

Not the laying on of hands, but the prayer which ac- 
companies it, or, rather, the word of God which the prayer 
appropriates and pleads with God. This is the "prophecy" 
of 1 Tim. 4 : 14. In 2 Tim. 1 ; 6, the words "laying on of 
hands" are used by synechdoche for the entire ceremony 
including the prayer and prophecy. Hands are laid on the 
person ordained, simply to designate the individual to 
whom the promises of the Gospel concerning the min- 
istry are applied, and to whom the office is entrusted. 

36. What is the exact estimate of such ceremony in 
the Lutheran Church? 

"We declare that the rite of Ordination ought by no 
means to be omitted, but that except in case of necessity, 
it should always be employed in constituting the ministry 
of the Church, both on account of the ancient custom of 
the Apostolic Church and that nearest the times of the 
Apostles, in which, by prayers and the laying on of hands, 
the presbytery ordained ministers elected by the Church, 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 433 

and as it were consecrated them to God, and on account 
of certain salutary ends. Although Paul was immedi- 
ately called, nevertheless he is sent to Ananias, who im- 
poses his hands, that his call may be manifest to the 
Church (Acts 9: 17), and, afterwards (Acts 13: 3), when 
he is to be sent to the heathen, he is again appointed a 
teacher of the Gentiles by the laying on of hands ; this 
rite being employed in order that his call might be de- 
clared publicly to be legitimate, and others might not boast 
in like manner of it. But if this was done in one who had 
been immediately called, how much more appropriate in 
those whose call is mediate" (Gerhard, VI, 97, largely 
from Chemnitz). 

37. By zvhom is Ordination administered? 

The laying on of hands recorded in Scripture was by the 
presbytery (1 Tim. 4: 14), i. e., the entire body of the 
presbyters or elders or pastors, through their representa- 
tives. When Paul speaks in 2 Tim. 1 : 6 of the laying on 
of his hands, it indicates that he was one of the presbytery. 
Paul himself had received the laying on of hands from 
Ananias, a layman (Acts 9: 17). The contention of those 
who urge that only a diocesan bishop in the line of an 
external succession, either from Apostolic times, or trace- 
able to a period of practically universal recognition in 
Christendom can ordain, is inadmissible, both for the 
reason above cited and because of what has been said 
above concerning the identity of presbyter and bishop in 
the New Testament (see above, 7-9). 

The object of Ordination being to afford the widest 
and fullest recognition of the persons ordained is among 
us generally administered, under synodical authority, by 
its President, assisted by its other officers. This corres- 
ponds both with the New Testament conception of laying 
on of hands by the presbytery, and with what has force 
in the claim for episcopal ordination, since a synodical 



434 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

President is, in his supervisory capacity, a temporary 
diocesan bishop. 

38. Can Ordination be administered by the authority 
simply of a congregation? 

"Wherever there is a true Church, the right to elect and 
ordain ministers necessarily exists" (Schmalkald Articles, 
350). "The Church which has the spiritual priesthood, 
certainly has the right to elect and ordain ministers" (lb.). 
"Formerly the people elected pastors and bishops. Then 
a bishop was added, either of that or a neighboring 
church, who confirmed the one elected by the laying on 
of hands ; neither was ordination anything else than such 
ratification" (lb.). 

Nevertheless the right is one that except for most 
weighty cause should not be exercised, as confusion re- 
sults if arbitrarily employed, and much of the impressive- 
ness of the ceremony is lost, when the Church in general 
is not heard through its official representatives. But "if 
the bishops are heretics or will not ordain suitable per- 
sons, the churches are in duty bound before God, accord- 
ing to divine law, to ordain for themselves pastors and 
ministers. Even though this be now called an irregu- 
larity or schism, it should be known that the godless doc- 
trine and tyranny of the bishops are responsible for 
it" (lb.). 

39. Should ministers who have been ordained in other 
communions be reordained on entering the Lutheran 
ministry? 

The answer to this question is determined by the con- 
sideration as to the extent to which the recognition of 
previous ordination would be regarded as the endorsement 
of the tests for the ministry in use in another communion. 
Where fundamental doctrines of Christianity, such as the 
Divinity of Christ are publicly repudiated, or where the 
entire teaching of the Gospel has been perverted and at- 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 435 

tacked, as by Rome, such public recognition of the change 
of attitude on the part of one who would enter the Luth- 
eran ministry, would seem to be especially important. 
Where the change has occurred from inner conviction as 
the result of deep inner conflict, such attestation, instead 
of being a humiliation, would be a relief and confirmation 
of the person ordained. 

40. Should one be ordained "sine titulo"? 

That is. without respect to some field of labor. On 
general principles, No : for ordination is the recognition 
of the call, and the call is to specific ministerial work. Our 
writers declare that ordination "sine titulo" amounts to 
ordination to the apostolate, which is without authority. 
On the other hand, the practice in the older portion of the 
Lutheran Church in America, where followed, has its 
historical explanation in the peculiar organization of the 
Church in its earliest years, according to which the 
"United Pastors" were regarded as all belonging to the 
"United Congregations,'' and dividing the labor among 
each other from time to time. A field of labor was, there- 
fore, always assured in every ordination, viz., within the 
"collegiate parish" of the "United Congregations," al- 
though the specific district was undetermined. Where 
this rule is not enforced, the ministry assumes the char- 
acter of an order, instead of an office. 

41. Are there different grades of ministers of the 
Word? 

It has been shown above (7-9) that the New Testament 
does not recognize any distinction between bishops and 
presbyters. "In 1 Cor. 3 : 6, Paul makes ministers equal 
and teaches that the Church is above the ministers. Hence 
superiority or lordship over the Church is not ascribed 
to Peter" (Schmalkald Articles, 340). There is no divine 
law designating a certain number of grades and perpetu- 
ally imposing them upon the Church. 



436 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

Nevertheless the importance of order and organization 
is clearly taught, and this necessitates the subordination 
of equals to each other for the welfare of the entire spir- 
itual body of believers. Some become primi inter pares. 

"1. Although in the ministry, there are diverse orders, 
nevertheless the power of the ministry in preaching the 
Word and administering the Sacraments, and the power 
of jurisdiction consisting in the use of the Keys, belongs 
equally to all ministers ; and, therefore, the Word 
preached, the Sacraments administered and the absolu- 
tion announced by one lawfully called to the ministry. 
even though he be of the lowest grade of the ministry, are 
just as valid and efficacious, as though preached, admin- 
istered and announced by the highest bishop, prophet or 
apostle. For as the diversity of gifts, so also that of 
grades does not change the force or efficacy of the doc- 
trine and Sacraments (1 Cor. 3:5, 7; 2 Cor. 12:9; Gal. 
2:8). 2. The diversity of grades depends indeed upon 
divine law, both 'by reason of genus,' so far as a distinc- 
tion of grades is necessary for good order and tranquility 
in the Church ; and 'by reason of gifts,' so far as by the 
variety and diversity of gifts, God declares that He wishes 
that there should be distinct grades among the ministers ; 
and 'by reason of certain grades in particular,' in so far 
as He Himself distinguished and preferred the office of 
prophets and apostles to that of others. Neverthless it 
cannot be said absolutely and generally concerning all 
grades of the ministry, that their institution and distinc- 
tion depend upon divine institution, inasmuch as these 
grades, in a fixed and necessary number, have neither 
been prescribed by God, nor used by the apostles, in like 
manner as the Sacraments have been restricted to the 
number two by divine institution and Apostolic practice ; 
but liberty has been left to the Church, with respect to 
circumstances, viz., of time and place, in any Church or- 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 437 

ganization, to establish either more or fewer grades 
among ministers" (Gerhard, VI, 137, 138). 

For these reasons, the practice of licensing candidates 
for the ministry for several years prior to their ordination, 
which was long the custom in the Lutheran Church of 
America, was entirely legitimate and valid. 

42. What Power or Authority have ministers? 

'The power of the bishops, by the rule of the Gospel, is 
a power or commandment from God, of preaching the 
Gospel, of remitting or retaining sins, and of administer- 
ing the Sacraments." "Bishops, as bishops, i. e., those 
who have the administration of the Word and Sacraments 
committed to them, have no other jurisdiction at all, but 
only to remit sin, also to take cognizance of doctrine, and 
to reject doctrine inconsistent with the Gospel, and to ex- 
clude from the communion of the Church, without human 
force, but by the word, those whose wickedness is known'' 
(Augsburg Confession, Art. XXVIII). 

43. These seem to be functions whose exercise dare 
not be declined by ministers. Are there any, besides 
these, that are permitted them? 

"It is lawful for bishops or pastors to make ordinances 
whereby things may be done in order in the Church ; not 
that by them, we may merit grace, or satisfy for sins, or 
that men's consciences should be bound to esteem them as 
necessary services, and think that they sin when they 
violate them without offence of others" (lb.). 

44. Hozv are these two different spheres classified? 
The former is designated as "Inner," and the latter, as 
"External" Power; The former deals directly with spirit- 
ual things ; the latter, with the secular side of the Church, 
as an external, visible organization. The old distinction 
derived from the Mediaeval Church, between "Power of 
Order," and "Power of Jurisdiction," although retained 
by some of our writers, is not used with uniform consist- 



438 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

ency, even where most current, and besides has to be con- 
siderably modified in accordance with our different con- 
ception of the Church. 

45. In what sense is "preaching" a prerogative of the 
ministry? 

As a public and official act on the part of a representa- 
tive of the Church. In a more private way, the instruction 
of Apollos by Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18: 26), and the 
command that parents instruct their children (Eph. 6:14), 
and that believers should teach and admonish each other 
(Col. 3: 16), show that there is a duty in this respect in- 
cumbent also upon laymen. (Concerning the question as 
to whether there be exceptional cases in which laymen 
may preach, see above, 28, 29.) 

46. Arc laymen absolutely forbidden to administer the 
Sacraments ? 

With but one exception, viz., where there is imminent 
danger of death of an unbaptized person before a pastor 
can be secured to administer baptism (see Chapter 
XXVII, 18). 

47. Has an ordained minister the right to preach and 
administer the Sacraments everywhere? 

His authority is limited by the terms of his call. He 
cannot exercise ministerial authority within the parish of 
another pastor, except by the consent of the latter, and at 
the call of the Church, through its proper officials. 

48. What subjects arc to be treated in the preaching of 
the Word? 

The entire contents of Revelation, viz., Law and Gospel 
in their proper proportion, and in their application to all 
the wants of the hearers as moral and religious beings. 

Matt. 28:20 — "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 1 com- 
manded you." Acts 20:27 — "I shrank not from declaring unto you all the 
counsel of God." 

Nothing is to be preached but what God has revealed, 
or what is connected with the application of such revealed 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 439 

Word. Nor is anything that God has revealed to be 
withheld or ignored. There must be the clear, positive, 
distinct presentation of doctrine, and the earnest warning 
against all current errors that may endanger the spiritual 
life of those who hear. Nor is the preaching to be exclu- 
sively doctrinal, but it is to comprise all the duties of the 
Christian life, in every calling and relation in which God 
has placed the members of the congregation as individ- 
uals. Fearlessly and searchingly, but with humility and 
love and judgment, sins are to be exposed and censured. 
The consolations and encouragements of the Gospel are 
to be administered to all the penitent and believing. The 
Pastoral Epistles of Paul afford full directions as to 
all this. 

"In our churches, all the sermons are occupied with 
such topics as these : repentance, the fear of God, faith in 
Christ, the righteousness of faith, the consolation of con- 
sciences, the exercises of faith, prayer, the cross, the au- 
thority of magistrates, the distinction between the King- 
dom of Christ and civil affairs, marriage, the education of 
children," etc. (Apology, 225). 

"It is not sufficient to preach the work, life and suffer- 
ings of Christ in an historic manner. . . . Preaching 
should have as its object the promoting of faith in Christ, 
so that he may not only be Christ, but a Christ for you and 
for me. This is accomplished by preaching why Christ 
came and what He has brought, and by showing how all 
we Christians are kings and priests, and lords of all 
things" (Luther, on "Christian Liberty"). 

49. Has the congregation the right to prescribe the 
subjects that are to be included or excluded in the preach- 
ing of the Word? 

The right of election belongs to the congregation ; but 
when a pastor accepts the call, he is not responsible to the 
congregation, but alone to God for the faithful discharge 



440 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

of the duties of his office. Otherwise his ministerial acts 
would not be performed in the name of God. 

Gal. 1:10 — "If I were still pleasing men, 1 should not be a servant ot 
Christ." 

"What would be our judgment of a physician who 
made the choice of his medicines dependent upon the 
taste of the sick?" (Van Oosterzee). 

50. What is required in the administration of the 
Sacraments? 

That all the essentials of the original institution be ob- 
served, and nothing be added or omitted that would im- 
pair or obscure their force. As in the preaching of the 
Word, so in the administration of the Sacraments, the de- 
mands and preferences of the congregation dare not de- 
termine the course of the pastor, except in things that are 
clearly matters of indifference. The will of the congre- 
gation cannot relieve him of his personal responsibility for 
all who are admitted or refused. 

51. What is the office of remitting and retaining sins? 
"The remission of sins is to be announced not only 

universally and indeterminatively to all the penitent and 
believing in Christ, but also determinatively and individu- 
ally to those who, confession being made, give probable 
signs of repentance and faith, and ask to be absolved of 
their sins. Nor is this a mere declaration, but it is effica- 
cious in confirming the forgiveness of sins made by God'* 
(Baier). (See Chapter XXVI, 8.) So the retention of 
sins is the announcement to a notorious and obstinate 
offender that God will not forgive his sins, as long as he 
remains in his impenitence, and his exclusion, for this 
reason, from the Lord's Supper and the fellowship of 
the Church. "This likewise is not merely declaratory, 
but is efficacious." 

52. By what terms is this individual dealing beiween 
a pastor and a parishioner known? 

As "Private Confession" and "Private Absolution.'' 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 441 

This does not mean ''secret" ; but, just as in 2 Peter I : 20, 
it is said that "no prophecy is of any private interpreta- 
tion," where the merely arbitrary judgment of the indi- 
vidual is excluded, so also here. The first meaning of 
"private" in the "Century Dictionary" is : "Peculiar to, 
belonging to, or concerning an individual only : respect- 
ing particular individuals ; personal." A "private corpor- 
ation" is not a "secret corporation," "private law" is not 
"secret law," "private property" is not "secret property," 
"private judgment" is not "secret judgment." The Latin 
word "privatiis" was opposed to "publicus" ; the latter 
meaning "what belongs to the state," the former "what be- 
longs to the individual." It is in this sense, therefore, that 
the word is to be understood in our Confessions, as in 
Augsburg Confession, Art. XI, where it is said : 'They 
teach that Private Absolution ought to be retained in all 
the churches," i. e., the assurance given the individual 
penitent that he has been redeemed by Christ, that for- 
giveness of sins is offered not simply to the world in gen- 
eral but to him in particular, that it is God's will that he 
should be forgiven, and that, if this treasure be not his, 
it will be only because he will reject it. Private Absolu- 
tion is nothing but the personal application of the Gospel 
message (Chapter XXVI, 1, 8). So Private Confession 
is individual or personal confession, even though made in 
the presence of an entire congregation or in the presence 
of the pastor alone. It may be made also through an ap- 
proved formula or confessional prayer, in the first per- 
son, singular number, as in the words : "I, a poor sinful 
man, confess unto Thee, my Creator and Redeemer." 

53. What various forms of confession are there f 

(a) Confession of our sins to God alone. Of the 
necessity and profitableness of such confession, the people 
should be diligently admonished. Examples of it are 
found in Ps. 32 : 3-5 ; 1 John 1 : 9. This may be a confes- 



442 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

sion not only of individual sins (Ps. 51 : 2, 3), but also of 
general sinfulness, as in Luke 18: 13; Ps. 51 : 5, 10. 

(b) Confession to one's neighbor, when we see that we 
have done him a wrong (Luke 17: 4; James 5 : 16; Matt. 
5:23). 

(c) General confession to a minister, where one de- 
clares his sinfulness, or where some particular sins have 
burdened the conscience (2 Sam. 12: 13; Matt. 3:5). 

(d) Public confession of sins which have given public 
offence. For this ecclesiastical practice, precedents are 
found in the narrative of the woman who was a sinner 
in Luke 7, and the case of discipline in the church at 
Corinth (1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2, 7). 

(e) To these Chemnitz (Examen) adds a history of the 
process which resulted at last in the Auricular Confession 
of the Papists. As the confession of notorious sins often 
led into the publishing of details which should not be 
mentioned in the congregation, it was preceded by confi- 
dential interviews with the priest, in which what should 
be made public and what should be kept secret, was 
determined. The next stage was the requirement of the 
secret confession of each sin, as the condition of its for- 
giveness. 

54. How does Lutheran Private Confession differ 
from that of the Roman confessional? 

(a) It is not exacted as necessary. The personal con- 
fession of sins is recommended as an aid for receiv- 
ing absolution. "Confession" (i. e., such personal confes- 
sion to a pastor), "is of human right only. Nevertheless, 
on account of the very great benefit of absolution, and be- 
cause it is otherwise useful to the conscience, confession 
is retained among us" (Augsburg Confession, Article 
XXV). "We retain Confession, especially on account of 
the absolution which is the Word of God, that the Power 
of the Keys proclaims concerning individuals" (Apology, 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 443 

196). It is intended particularly "for timid consciences 
and inexperienced youth, in order that they may be in- 
structed in Christian doctrine'' (Schmalkald Articles, 

(b) The enumeration of details is not urged. "In confes- 
sion an enumeration of all sins is not necessary" (Augs- 
burg Confession, XI). "They teach that an enumeration of 
sins is not necessary, and that consciences be not burdened 
with anxiety to enumerate all sins" (lb., XXV). "Minis- 
ters have the command to remit sins ; they have not the 
command to investigate secret sins" (Apology, 196). "Al- 
though it is of advantage to accustom inexperienced men 
to enumerate some things, in order that they may be the 
more readily taught" (lb., 176). : 'The enumeration of 
sins ought to be free to every one, as to what he wishes 
to enumerate or not" (Schmalkald Articles, 331). 

(c) The chief purpose of reflection concerning individ- 
ual sins is to lead to the deeper conviction of the state of 
sin, and the entire corruption of man's nature, whence par- 
ticular acts of sin have proceeded ; so that a general con- 
fession of sinfulness may follow. 

55. Hozv arc some of the advantages of such Confes- 
sion and Absolution obtained? 

By the general public Confession and Declaration of 
Grace that precedes the Holy Communion. The chief 
design of this service is to cultivate and deepen the sense 
of individual sin, and to prepare for the absolution com- 
municated in the words of distribution. 

56. Can Church Discipline be exercised by a congre- 
gation independently of the ministry? 

No. For while the Keys belong to the entire Church, 
it employs them only by providing for a ministry, through 
which this is done. In 1 Cor. 5 : 3-5, we learn that, in 
order that discipline could be exercised in the Corinthian 



444 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXX. 

church, the presence of Paul, and in his absence, his writ- 
ten approval, was necessary. (See Chapter XXXII.) 

57. Mention some of the matters comprised within 
the sphere of External Pozver. 

All the provisions included in the Constitutions of con- 
gregations, Synods, General Bodies, the educational and 
benevolent institutions of the Church, Missionary Boards 
and Societies, and all other agencies for the dissemination 
of God's Word, the supply and training of ministers, the 
regulations for worship and the preaching of the Gospel, 
the settlement of disputes and controversies, the publica- 
tion and circulation of Church literature, the support of 
the destitute, the administration of Church funds and the 
making of collections for these objects. While the min- 
istry shares this power with the laity, it is in general their 
judgment, experience and training which determine its 
direction. Such power is exercised not by the rigid en- 
forcement of laws, but by the appeal which the presenta- 
tion of the causes above mentioned makes upon the hearts 
and consciences of individuals. The external is entirely 
subordinate to the inner power. The ministry of preaching 
the Word and administering the Sacraments is above that 
which is occupied with the details of Church government 
and external administration. 

58. What other ministers are there beside the minis- 
ters of the Word? 

Deacons, or the executive aids of pastors, chiefly in the 
external administration of the Church. While the ques- 
tion as to whether "the seven" of Acts 6 : 3 are the same 
as the deacons elsewhere mentioned in the New Testa- 
ment, is one on which there is not unanimity among Bible 
students, nevertheless, the general principle of the more 
thorough organization and division of labor is the same 
in both classes of passages. Acts 7 and 8 clearly show 
that "the seven" preached as well as attended to the 



Chap. XXX.] the ministry. 445 

secular responsibilities of the infant Church. The quali- 
fications of deacons required by I Tim. 3:8-13, show 
that their duties were not purely secular. 

59. What were the Deaconesses of the early Church? 
Women officially commissioned for congregational ser- 
vice. They were nothing more than female deacons. 

Rom. 16:1 — "Phoebe, our sister, who is a deaconess ot the church that 
is at Cenchreae." 

In 1 Tim. 3:8-10, there is a statement concerning the 
qualifications in general for "deacons." Then, in v. 1 1, 
it is the female deacons, who are meant by the designation 
"women" ; after which v. 12 refers to the male deacons. 
It would be a strange break to understand v. 11 as mean- 
ing women in general, or the wives of deacons. 

60. What is the end of the Ministry? 

■ Its ultimate end is the salvation of men. 

1 Tim. 4:16 — "Take heed to thyself and to thy teaching. Continue in 
these things; for in doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and them that 
hear thee." 

Its intermediate end is the reconciliation of men with 
God. 

2 Cor. 5:18 — "God gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation." i. 20 — 
"We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating 
by us; we beseech you, on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God." 

As well as the edification of believers in faith and other 
Christian virtues. 

Eph. 4:12, 13 — "For the perfecting of the saints, unto the work ot min- 
istering, unto the building up ot the body ot Christ, till we all attain unto 
the unity of the faith, and ot the knowledge ot the Son ot God, unto a 
fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 

The end of the ministry, therefore, is not simply to in- 
crease, from year to year, the roll of communicants, but 
to deepen each member of the Church in all the gifts and 
graces of Christian character. The outward extension of 
the Church and all about it that meets men's eyes are sub- 
ordinate to its inner growth, i. e., to the bringing to men 
"righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 
14: 17). Such is the only test of a successful pastorate. 



446 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXI. 

61. What special comfort have ministers of the Word 
who recognize their office as coming to them from a 
clearly divine calif 

"God's call carries with it God's aid. An earthly ruler 
who sends a servant on an embassy protects him with a 
large squadron of cavalry. So whenever God calls one to 
dangers, He promises him His aid and protection. When 
He called Moses to lead Israel, He said: 'I will be with 
thee.' When He called the Israelites to the desert, 
what withstood them, or what did they lack, as they 
obeyed ? The sea saw them and fled, Jordan turned back- 
wards, the heaven rained manna, the earth gave water, 
their clothing did not wear out, their feet w r ere not 
bruised, their enemies were stricken with fear. When 
Jeremiah was called and realized how inadequate he was 
for so great a work, he heard the words : T am with thee-, 
to deliver thee.' When the Apostles went forth without 
silver or gold, without purse or staff, what did they lack? 
What perils overcame them ? Let us, therefore, take heed 
to walk obediently as God calls us, however dangerous 
be the way. For it is not by disobedience, but by obedi- 
ence, that, through faith, we are accustomed to avoid the 
perils that threaten us" (Brentz, on Acts 1). 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

THE CHURCH'S CONFESSIONS. 

I. Why are Confessions of Faith necessary f 
In order to distinguish Church organizations which 
have reached certain conclusions from Holy Scripture, 
and embodied them in formal definitions from other or- 
ganizations or other modes of teaching which also appeal 
to Scripture as their authority. A Confession of Faith 
is as necessary for a Church organization as a Constitution 
is for a society. 



Chap. XXXI. ] the church's confessions. 447 

2. But is not the Bible a sufficient confession? 

The Bible can never be made a Confession of Faith. It 
is the absolute rule and source of faith. But when its 
truth is received, man's answer is his confession. 

Rom. 10:10 — "With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness and with 
the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 1 ' 

In Mark 9 : 23, the Word of God is : 

"All things are possible to him that believeth." 

The human answer to this, i. e., the confession of faith 
which it evokes is : 

v. 24 — "Lord, 1 believe; help thou mine unbeliet." 

In order that a number of persons may join in a confes- 
sion, there is need of a prearranged form. Such in a 
general sense are the hymns of the Church. But in a 
narrower sense, the term "Confession'' refers to those 
documents which have originated from some crisis in the 
Church's history, when a necessity has arisen of carefully 
discriminating what is regarded the truth from what is 
regarded error with reference to the teachings of Scrip- 
ture. 

3. Within what spheres are such Confessions nec- 
essary? 

(a) They are bonds of union between the members of 
the Church, by which they recognize each other as holding 
to the same interpretation of God's Word. 

(b) They are marks by which those outside the com- 
munion may distinguish it from other assemblies. 

(c) They are solemn contracts by which those en- 
trusted with official positions as representatives of the 
Church, especially pastors and public teachers, are to be 
regulated in the administration of their office. 

4. Why should such confessional obligation be ex- 
acted especially of a pastor? 

Because the Church, by its ordination, endorses the 
candidate as its representative. It commits the teaching 
and preaching and the administration of the Sacraments 



448 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXI. 

into his hands, not so as to be determined by his own 
judgment, but to be administered in accordance with what 
the Church believes and confesses to be the pure Word of 
God, and what in her long experience she has found to be 
the most efficient mode of administering the Word. Min- 
isters are representatives of God only as executives of 
what God has entrusted to the Church. 

5. But does not this assume that the conscience' of the 
pastor must be determined by the judgment of the Church 
rather than by Holy Scripture? 

He is expected to have been a faithful student of Holy 
Scripture, and to have tested the statements of the Con- 
fessions according to this standard. "We confessionally 
accept the first unaltered Augsburg Confession, not be- 
cause it was composed by our theologians, but because it 
has been derived from God's Word" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 536). 

Confessions of Faith, our theologians have repeatedly 
said, are not a "norma credendorum," for this pertains 
only to the Scriptures, but they are a "norma docen- 
dorum." (See Chapter I, 35.) 

6. If, however, the judgment of ihe pastor or candi- 
date should differ from that of the Church? 

As a Christian teacher and a professed representative 
of God to men, if thoroughly candid and true to his call, 
he would not consent to be known before men by a name 
which stands for doctrines which he repudiates. 

7. What should be the nature of the confessional test? 
Clear, definite, explicit, and avoiding all ambiguous 

phrases which may be a pretext for a union upon words 
among those who are at controversy concerning that for 
which these words stand. If, for example, at the Refor- 
mation period, the formula: "We hold that man is justi- 
fied before God by faith alone," had been accepted by the 
Roman Catholics, in the sense that justification comes 



Chap. XXXI.] the church's confessions. 449 

through faith alone, because faith is "the mother of good 
works,'' and without faith there can be no such works, or 
because faith is the foundation of love, and the justifying 
value of faith is the love which energizes it, our Lutheran 
forefathers could not have subscribed with them any such 
statements. In all Confessions of Faith, as in all articles 
of agreement in civil life, such as are interpreted by our 
courts of justice, there can be no real and lasting under- 
standing, unless the two parties to the contract, employ its 
terms in the same sense. No one understanding the situ- 
ation, would buy or sell a farm or rent a house upon 
terms susceptible of diverse interpretations. If, then, in 
our business transactions, we demand agreements "in 
black and and white," how much more important is this 
necessary in the Church, whose entire strength consists 
in the clearness of its testimony ! 

8. What two things are involved in a confessional 
obligation? 

First of all, and chiefly, loyalty to the faith of the Con- 
fession. That faith is capable of expression in various 
forms and ways. But whatever be the mode in which it 
appears, and however manifold its applications, it is al- 
ways the same faith and, as coming from God, demands 
the same recognition. Because of this, it includes, in the 
second place, loyalty also to the particular Confession, as 
one of the many forms in which this faith is expressed 
Where the faith has been thoroughly appropriated and 
has really entered into the life, it unconsciously combines 
fidelity to an historical Confession which is found to be 
scriptural, with the greatest freedom of adaptation and 
adjustment to variations of time and place, and to the 
ever shifting movements of thought and discussion. The 
results of the Reformation are the basis, but not the limit 
of the thought and life of the Church of later centuries. 
It is for us to recognize and highly prize and jealously 



450 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXI. 

guard whatever has been wrought by the Holy Spirit at 
every important epoch of the Church ; but we cannot rest 
in this. New issues will constantly demand new expres- 
sions of the same precious faith. All progress is by the 
combination of two forces, fidelity to the past and fidelity 
to the present. Neither the Augsburg Confession nor the 
Schmalkald Articles, nor the Formula of Concord can be 
the ultimate definition of the Church's faith. Whenever 
some wide-spread error or gross abuse requires some em- 
phatic repudiation on the part of the Church of a later 
age, the embodiment of such conviction in synodical 
action gives it the rank of a confessional position. 

9. Are there no precautions, however, to be observed 
in subscribing to the Confessions ? 

'They are not to be received other or further than as 
witnesses, in what manner, since the time of the Apostles, 
the doctrine of the Apostles and prophets has been 
preserved. . . . They are only a witness and decla- 
ration of the faith, as to how the Holy Scriptures have 
been understood and explained in the articles in contro- 
versy, and by what arguments the dogmas conflicting with 
the Holy Scripture were rejected and condemned" 
(Formula of Concord, 491-2). Their authority rests en- 
tirely upon their agreement with Scripture, and not upon 
the decision of the Church. "Whoever regards doctrines 
of the Lutheran Church as true on the ground that they 
are Lutheran, is no Lutheran" (Kahnis, I, 5). 

10. May we not then subscribe to them, "in so far as" 
they agree zmth Holy Scripture ? 

No ; for this would not tell what the person making the 
subscription accepted or rejected. We could subscribe 
with such a formula equally well to the Decrees of Trent 
or of Dort, the Westminster Confession or the Heidelberg 
Catechism, the Book of Mormon or the Koran, as to the 
Augsburg Confession. We could stand in a large theo- 



Chap. XXXI.] the church's confessions. 451 

logical library, and pointing to the alcoves say : "All re- 
ligious truth within these books, that is in harmony with 
Holy Scripture, I accept. In so far as they are in con- 
formity with God's Word, I accept them all!" The next 
question inevitably must be, as to what the doctrines are 
that are confessed, or as to what the statements are which 
are acknowledged and approved. If this is evaded, there 
is no confession. Hence we repudiate the so-called "qua- 
tenus subscription," as an evasion, and ask for a "quia 
subscription," as alone fulfilling the scriptural require- 
ment : 

1 Pet. 3:15 — "Be ready always to give answer to every man that asketh 
you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and 
fear." 

11. Hozv may the Confessions of the Lutheran Church 
be grouped ? 

Into two classes : 

I. Practical handbooks for popular instruction: 
The Small Catechism, and the Large Catechism. 

II. Theological Confessions : 

(1) The Symbols of Lutheran Caiholicity: (a) The 
Augsburg Confession. It exhibits the faith confessed by 
the Lutheran Church as the basis of all true Christianity. 
Although the Articles concerning abuses, and the close of 
nearly all the doctrinal articles are negative, it is prepon- 
derantly positive. Its tone is throughout irenic. (b) The 
Apology is an official interpretation of the articles of the 
Augsburg Confession that were misrepresented. 

(2) The Symbol of Lutheran Determination and Par- 
ticularity :T he Schmalkald Articles. After years of pro- 
test have failed to make an impression upon those who in 
the Roman Church have perverted the Gospel, this Con- 
fession dissolves forever all communion with this corrupt 
organization, and leaves it to its just fate. It makes few 
additions to positive doctrine. It is preponderantly nega- 



452 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXI. 

tive. Polemical in tone, it is, from beginning to end, a 
call to arms against deadly errors and obstinate errorists. 

(3) The Symbol of Lutheran Reflection upon the con- 
tents of its faith and doctrine: The Formula of Concord. 
Here the Church, in the maturity of its powers, examines 
and judges itself. It subjects its conceptions of the faith 
to rigid analysis and discriminating criticism, and frames 
and fixes the terminology of theological definitions, which 
under its decisions lose the ambiguity that at many points 
had caused confusion and controversy. In it, the positive 
and negative elements are most carefully balanced. The 
predominant characteristics of the Formula are its scien- 
tific exactness and the judicial poise with which it keeps 
the golden mean between the extremes on both sides, 
which it states at the beginning of the discussion of every 
topic. 

The Confessions may be classified and designated 
otherwise as follows : 

I. The Catechisms are symbols pertaining to the re- 
ligious life of the individual Christian. 

II. The other Confessions are symbols pertaining to 
the ecclesiastical organisation and define the principles 
that are to govern the Church in preaching the Word and 
administering the Sacraments. 

(1) The Augsburg Confession (1530), with its supple- 
ment, the Apology (1531) represents the opening youth 
of the Lutheran Church. In it the Church has the out- 
look and temper of an earnest and godly child thirteen 
years old, who has attained a knowledge of the treasures 
of the Gospel, and who, in the spirit of true devotion, is 
making his confirmation vow. There is here the sim- 
plicity, ingenuousness, amiability and sanguine expecta- 
tions concerning an untried future that characterize this 
particular stage of life. 

(2) The Schmalkald Articles (1537) represents the 



Chap. XXXI.] the church's confessions. 453 

Lutheran Church on the very verge of its majority. 
Twenty years had passed since the XCV Theses, when 
this later document was drawn up by the same hand. Cast 
out of the old home, and thrown on his own resources, the 
adult is now able to assert his complete independence. 
With youthful impetuosity he takes up the sword and 
makes aggressive warfare against the enemy who spurns 
all attempts at peace. 

(3) The Formula of Concord (1577) comes forty years 
later. The Church has passed the period of youth and 
looks back upon the varied experiences that have, in un- 
expected ways, put faith to the trial, and thoroughly 
tested the earlier declarations. With powers matured but 
not enfeebled by age, the results of the intervening period 
are reviewed with the calmness and thoroughness of a 
discriminating judge. 

12. Hozv may Confessions be abused ? 

(a) By resting in them. This happens when we are 
satisfied with them as the irrefutable productions of our 
fathers, and a precious legacy of the Lutheran Church, 
instead of making them simply the starting-point of our 
own thought and growth. They are really appreciated 
and assimilated only in the degree that, as individuals, we 
pass through conflicts, similar to those which called them 
forth. 

(b) By neglecting the fresh and independent study of 
Holy Scripture, in the light of all increased facilities 
which later ages may have brought. Theological students 
and pastors, intent chiefly on statements of dogmas, to 
the neglect of the devout religious use and thorough exe- 
getical study of the Bible, especially of the New Testa- 
ment, are false to the Confessional principle with which 
the Formula of Concord opens. 

(c) By using them in a legalistic and mechanical way. 
Just as the Holy Scriptures are abused by neglecting to 



454 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXI. 

treat them as an organism, and treating them as though 
they are simply a treasury of proof-texts of equal force 
and value in whatever relation they may be placed, so also 
the Confessions must always be interpreted upon their 
historical background, and their statements should be ap- 
plied in the sense in which they were intended by their 
authors. Incidental illustrations, citations and even argu- 
ments do not have the authority that belongs to the form 
in which the doctrine itself is stated. 

(d) By putting the Confession in place of the doctrines 
which it confesses. It is not the formal subscription to 
the Confessions, but it is the sincere acceptance of the doc- 
trines they state and defend, that determines the real 
ecclesiastical standing of a pastor. This, however, does 
not render it unnecessary, for the proper order and or- 
ganization of the Church, that pastors who have learned 
to know and accept the doctrines of the Confessions be 
required to give them their formal subscription. 

13. But docs subscription to Confessions produce ab- 
solute harmony among all who comply with this require- 
ment? 

No more than there is absolute unity among all who 
profess to cherish the Holy Scriptures as the Word of 
God, or to worship Jesus Christ as their Saviour. In this 
world, the Church will always be under the cross, and 
dissensions will occur whatever be the means adopted to 
avoid them. There is at least one thing, however, that is 
more to be valued than even peace and harmony, and that 
is faithful testimony to the entire truth of God's Word. 

14. Are not ihe controversies settled in our Confes- 
sions merely such as belonged to the Church in Germany 
over three hundred years ago, and, therefore, of no very 
great importance to us in America? 

The errors controverted reappear wherever the Gospel 
is preached. The questions of the XVI Century are just 



Chap. XXXI.] the church's confessions. 455 

as living and important today, as they were then. A 
Church which assumes to be independent of the labors and 
testimony of its fathers, in so far as they are true, will 
ultimately be called upon to pass through the same ex- 
perience, and to return to their testimony which it had 
deemed unnecessary. 

15. Hozu are doctrinal controversies to be conducted? 
By carefully keeping in mind two scriptural principles : 

(a) Jude 3 — "Contend earnestly for the faith which was once tor all 
delivered to the saints." Tit. 1:13 — "Reprove them sharply, that they may 
be sound in the faith." 

(b) 2 Tim. 2:24, 25 — "And the Lord's servant must not strive, but be 
gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them that 
oppose themselves; if perad venture God may give them repentance unto the 
knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. ^-.t, — "The bishop must be no brawler, 
no striker; but gentle, not contentious." Tit. 1:7 — "Not selt-willed, not 
soon angry, no brawler, no striker." Jude 9 — "But Michael the archangel, 
when contending with the devil he disputed about the body ot Moses, durst 
not bring against him a railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke thee." 

Fidelity in the proclamation of the truth, and the ex- 
posure of error, is perfectly consistent with the upaxos 
(non-controversial, I Tim. 3:3; Titus 3:2) temper or 
spirit, of which no better example can be given than that 
of "the faithful witness" (Rev. 1:5) our Lord Jesus 
Christ. No love of ease or peace suppresses His testi- 
mony, as we read in the Gospels, neither do the errors of 
His opponents provoke Him to harsh denunciations, ex- 
cept when, as a last resort, in the spirit of love, He seeks 
by the most forcible words to arouse them from the 
stupor into which they had been beguiled. The silence 
of Jesus, after His words are rejected, is more significant 
than any utterance could have been. 

16. Has any statement on this subject been made by 
our theologians? 

Yes. Luther has somewhere said : "Non docendo, sed 
disputando, Veritas antittititr" i. e., "It is not by teaching, 
but by wrangling, that the truth is lost." Nor can a better 
interpretation of this be found than the words of Chem- 
nitz : "We must always keep it in mind that the purpose of 



456 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXI. 

the Son of God, in coining forth from the secret abode of 
the Eternal Father, and revealing heavenly doctrine, was 
not to found here and there seminaries for disputations, 
in which theologians might make a display of their intel- 
lectual acumen, but, on the contrary, that humanity might 
be instructed concerning the true knowledge of God and 
all things necessary for attaining eternal salvation. For 
this reason, in respect to every article of faith, our chief 
care should be as to how and in what manner the doctrine 
which is taught be applied to practice in the earnest exer- 
cises of repentance, faith, obedience and prayer. For thus 
minds will advance at the same time both in learning and 
in godliness. For it has been truly said that Theology 
consists more in disposition than in knowledge'' (Loci 
Theologici, p. 17). 

17. What does this last statement mean? 

It refers to the doctrine that all agree upon theoreti- 
cally, but are apt to forget in the heat of controversy, that 
it is not the elaboration of argument, or the profundity of 
learning, or the sharpness in drawing distinctions, or 
fluency in debate, or height of eloquence, that produces 
conviction, but the illuminating influences of the Holy 
Spirit, imparted through "the still, small voice" of the 
Word, when it is treated in a reverent and prayerful 
spirit. Men reach deeply settled convictions not amidst 
the heat of personal or partisan discussion, but in the 
silence of the study and the closet. 

18. What model of controversial composition may be 
mentioned? 

The "Ex amen Concilii Tridentini," by Dr. Martin 
Chemnitz, in which the controversy affords only the 
starting-point for a most exhaustive and dispassionate 
discussion of the principles that underly it. Thus the neg- 
ative element forms a small part of the treatment, and the 
opponents and their attacks are obscured by the material 
of permanent value that prevails. 



Chap. XXXII. ] church discipline. 457 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

CHURCH DISCIPLINE. • 

i. What two spheres are there for the exercise of 
Church discipline? 

The discipline of members of the Church as individual 
Christians, and the discipline of ministers. 

2. Have those who occupy the ministerial office any 
prerogative exempting them from the same discipline as 
other members of the Church? 

By no means. But as the bearers of an office, they 
have responsibilities not incumbent upon private mem- 
bers, and, hence, are subjects of discipline, from which 
otherwise they would be free. 

3. What is the main object of the discipline of a mem- 
ber of the Church? 

The reformation of the one who has sinned, and the 
salvation of his soul. 

1 Cor. 5:5 — "To deliver such an one unto Satan tor the destruction ot 
the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." Matt. 
18:15 — "If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Gal. 6:1 — "If a 
man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in 
the spirit of gentleness." 

4. But is this the only object? 

No. A second object is that the sin of which he is 
guilty may not contaminate and ruin others. 

1 Cor. 5:6, 7 — "Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole 
lump? Purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump." 

A third object is that the order of the Church may be 
preserved. 

1 Thess. 3:6 — "Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh 
disorderly." vs. 14, 15 — "It any man obeyeth not our word cy this epistle, 
note that man, that ye may have no company with him, to the end that he 
may be ashamed. And yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him 
as a brother." 

A fourth object is that the confession and testimony of 
the Church to the truth, and against every form of sin 
and error may be clear and unequivocal. 



45^ A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXII. 

Rev. 2:2 — "I know thy works and thy toil and thy patience, and that 
thou canst not bear evil men, and didst try them that call themselves 
apostles, and they are not, and didst rind them false." v. 14 — "1 have a 
few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teach- 
ing of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block betore the chil- 
dren of Israel." Eph. 5:11 — "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful 
works of darkness, but rather even reprove them." 

5 Has the Church, therefore, any authority to dis- 
pense with Church Discipline? 

1 Cor. 5:11 — "1 wrote unto you not to keep company, it any man that is 
named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, 
or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one, no not to eat." 

6. What do our Confessions declare on this subject? 
In Augsburg Confession, Art. XXVIII, among the just 

rights of "bishops," is "to exclude from the communion 
of the Church, wicked men whose wickedness is known, 
and this without human force, simply by the Word." 

The Apology (German ed.), Art. XI, "On Confes- 
sion," declares : "Besides it has always been announced 
by our preachers that they should be excommunicate. d and 
excluded who live in public crimes, fornication, adultery, 
etc. ; likewise they who despise the Holy Sacraments." 

So also the Schmalkald Articles (Part III, Art. IX) : 
"The 'Greater Excommunication,' as the Pope calls it, we 
regard only as a civil penalty, and not pertaining to us 
ministers of the Church. But the 'Less' is true Christian 
excommunication, which prohibits manifest and obstinate 
sinners from the Sacrament and other communion of the 
Church until they are reformed and avoid sin." 

7. What have our theologians to say on the subject? 
Chemnitz, in the "Kirchen-Ordnung" of Lower Saxony 

(A. D. 1585), states the necessity of discipline for earthly 
governments, families and schools, and adds ; "Much 
more in the holy house of God, without necessary, whole- 
some discipline, instituted and administered according to 
God's Word, nothing can be done in an orderly, right, 
Christian and proper way." Fecht, quoted by Dr. Wal- 
ther (Pastorale, 318), declares that "the entire building 



Chap. XXXII.] church discipline. 459 

of the Church rests upon two pillars, the teaching of 
sound doctrine and the administration of discipline" ; and 
that "the lack of discipline is the chief cause of the decline 
of our Church." "Orthodox theologians have constantly 
complained of this laxity, and have urged the restoration 
of stricter discipline." 

8. With what offences is this discipline occupied? 
'They are of two classes : Those pertaining to doctrine, 

and those pertaining to the life. A doctrinal error either 
arises from simple ignorance and has no obstinacy con- 
joined with it or, it has its origin in malice and lack of 
honesty, and is obstinately defended against the judgment 
of the Church derived from Holy Scripture. A fall in 
life and character is an offence committed either in words 
or deeds, and is either public or private. A public 
offence is one that has been openly done or is widely 
known and entails scandal ; a private, is one secretly com- 
mitted of which only a single person, or at most a very 
few have knowledge, and is without public and notorious 
scandal" (Gerhard, VI, 192). 

9. What grades of Church Discipline are there? 

Our theologians generally give three: (a) Admonition 
and Reproof; (b) the "Minor Excommunication," or 
suspension, for a time, from the Lord's Supper; and (c) 
the "Greater Excommunication," or total expulsion from 
the Church, which is rarely employed and only in the most 
flagrant cases. 

10. Is there a divinely prescribed order for the 
process? 

Yes ; and especially for private offences. 

Matt. 18:15-17 — "If thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault 
between thee and him alone; it he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 
But if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth 
of two witnesses or three, every word may be established. And if he re- 
fuse to hear them, tell it unto the church; and it he retuse to hear the 
church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican." 



460 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXII. 

11. Is this limited to acts which are personally injuri- 
ous or hostile to the person reproving? 

'The Greek phrase { eis sc' can be rendered in Latin 
'apnd te or 'coram te,' that is, 'in your knowledge' ' (Ger- 
hard). This interpretation of "eis" seems to be over- 
drawn. Calvin's interpretation is better : "There are very 
many who allow no public censures, until the sinner has 
been admonished privately. But the restriction in the 
words of Christ is manifest. For He does not absolutely 
and without exception command that whoever sin be ad- 
monished or reproved secretly and without any witness, 
but He wants this way to be tried by us when we have 
been offended privately, not indeed in our own interests, 
but because it is fitting that we be grieved, whenever God 
is offended. For Christ is not treating here concerning 
the patient endurance of injuries, but teaches that mild- 
ness should be cultivated by us generally, lest, by treating 
the weak too harshly, we destroy those who should be 
saved. Therefore, the particle 'against thee,' does not 
designate an injury offered some one, but distinguishes 
between secret and manifest sins. For if any one sin 
against the whole Church, Paul wants him to be publicly 
rebuked, so that not even elders are to be spared. And 
certainly it is ridiculous to require that one who has sinned 
with public offence, commonly known as flagitium, be 
admonished by each one individually ; for if there were a 
thousand witnesses, he would have to be admonished a 
thousand times. The distinction, therefore, which Christ 
expressly makes, must be retained, lest some one by pub- 
lishing secret sins rashly and unnecessarily malign his 
brother." Note also should be taken of the fact that this 
direction of our Lord is not permissive, but mandatory. 
It declares not a privilege which the believer may exer- 
cise at his discretion, but a duty. 



Chap. XXXII. ] church discipline. 461 

12. What caution, however, is to be employed with 
reference to this private interview? 

"Prudence must be exercised; for when one has sinned 
from ignorance or infirmity, a kind admonition, with an 
exhortation to avoid future lapses is enough ; but when 
one has sinned from malice a more severe reproof should 
be administered. 'Friendly reproof,' says Ambrose, 'ac- 
complishes more than violent charges ; the former in- 
spires shame, the latter excites indignation.' Neither in 
such administration of reproof should we indulge our 
personal feelings or private resentment (1 Tim. 5:21) 
but every effort should be made to bring about the con- 
version and salvation of the one who has fallen" (Ger- 
hard). Dannhauer lays down the following requisites for 
such admonition, viz., (a) Truth, the person must be sure 
of the charge; (b) Prudence, at the right time; (c) 
Friendliness, i. e., with tenderness and sympathy (Ps. 
141. 5) ; (d) Sincerity; (e) Moderation and consider- 
ateness. 

13. Hon' in regard to public offences? 

Such previous private process is not necessary (1 Tim. 
5:20). So Paul rebuked Peter promptly and openly 
(Gal. 2: 11). Nevertheless even here, a private interview 
may often remove misunderstandings and prevent much 
further trouble. 

14. When must resort be had to excommunication? 
Onlv when all other measures have failed to brins: the 

offender to repentance ; and then, too, only because of 
sins of peculiar enormity, and which occasion scandal. 

15. To whom docs the decision as to excommunication 
belong? 

First of all to the Church, i. e., the congregation. 

Matt. 18:17 — "Tell it unto the church." 

1 Cor. 5:13 — "Put away the wicked man irom among yourselves." 

As the Key of binding it belongs not simply to the min- 
istry, but to the whole Church (Matt. 18:17, 18, 20). 
(Chapter XXIX, 54; XXX, 56.) 



462 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIL 

But just as the preaching of the Word, the administra- 
tion of the Sacraments and the exercise of the Key of 
loosing require the ministerial office, so here. In 1 Cor. 
5:3, 4, the Apostle gives the Corinthian congregation a 
written authorization to proceed in a disciplinary case, 
"as though I were present." 

Hence the Schmalkald Articles declare : "The common 
jurisdiction of excommunicating those guilty of manifest 
crimes belongs to all pastors." 

A congregation cannot excommunicate without a pas- 
tor, neither can a pastor excommunicate simply according 
to his own judgment and without the authorization of the 
congregation, in accordance with the mode of procedure 
which its Constitution may define. It would be entirely 
within the authority of the Church for it to make a con- 
stitutional provision requiring, for final decision, the en- 
dorsement of a representative of the Church outside of the 
congregation, as often in Germany the approval of the 
Consistory has been prescribed, in order to remove such 
disciplinary action as far as possible from a sphere in 
which personal and partisan influence may be dominant. 

16. Why is the presence and concurrence of the min- 
istry so important? 

(a) Because in the trial of such cases, the congregation 
needs to* be guided by the teaching office of the Church, 
that it may adhere closely to what is taught in the Holy 
Scriptures, and not take the power into its own hand. 

(b) Because the personal dealing with souls belongs 
first of all to the pastoral office, and such procedure should 
not proceed without the faithful discharge of pastoral 
duty with respect to the accused. 

(c) Because the execution of the decision is incumbent 
on the pastor. 

17. What penalties are imposed by such discipline ? 
The Church has no other power but that of the Word; 



Chap. XXXII. ] church discipline. 463 

it can therefore impose no other than spiritual penalties. 
They are in reality only the external testimony to those 
which it believes God has already imposed. They are 
nothing more than exclusion from the rights and privil- 
eges of full membership, combined with the emphatic 
condemnation of the conduct of the one convicted. 

18. But what if the Excommunication be unjust? 

It is not valid before God, although it may be the duty 
of the one wronged to submit to it, under protest, until 
his innocence can be established. 

19. Does not the Key of binding, as well as that of 
loosing refer to secret as well as to public offences? 

"The Keys are an office and power given by Christ to 
the Church for binding and loosing sins, not only such as 
are gross and well known, but also such as are subtile, 
hidden and known only to God'' (Schmalkald Articles, 
III, VII). 

This refers, however, to the private dealing of the pas- 
tor with his people ; and to the sins also of which even the 
pastor is ignorant, when he in general gives the assurance 
of forgiveness or of retention. 

20. How is the discipline of pastors distinguished from 
that of other members of the Church? 

It has reference to the continuance or the non-continu- 
ance of the official endorsement given at their ordination 
that they are proper persons to be entrusted with the care 
of souls, and the office of the Word and Sacraments. A 
responsibility for the career of the minister is not only 
assumed at his ordination, but remains until the endorse- 
ment be withdrawn. 

1 Tim. 5:22 — "Lay hands suddenly upon no man, neither be partaker of 
other men's sins." 

21. What special provision does the New Testament 
make with respect to the discipline of pastors? 

1 Tim. 5:19 — "Against an elder, receive not an accusation except at the 
mouth of two or three witnesses." 



464 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIII. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 

i. What other institutions besides the ministry are 
there through which the spiritual welfare of man is 
promoted? 

The Family and the State. 

2. What is the office of the Family? 

Not only to be the birth-place and nursery of members 
and ministers of the Church, but a school for the training 
of husband and wife, parents and children in Christian 
character, for the strengthening of their faith, the growth 
of Christian love, the exercise of patience and self-denial 
and self-sacrificing devotion, and the cultivation and nur- 
ture of all influences that are made effective in the ser- 
vice of God. According to the scriptural ideal, the 
Church is composed of families, i. e., miniature churches, 
the only true "ecclesiolae in ecclesiis." What the pastor 
is to the congregation, the father is to his household. 
Each of the parts of Luther's Catechism begins with the 
words : "In the plain form in which the father of the 
household is to teach his family." He is not only to 
teach, but daily to pray with his wife and children. The 
mutual love of husband and wife is to be the outgrowth 
of their common faith in Christ, their common love and 
sympathy for all included in Christ's love, their common 
possession of the hopes of the Gospel, and their common 
interest in what is spiritual and eternal and of what is 
temporal only as subordinated to these higher objects. 

3. How does the Church exert its most effective in- 
fluence? 

By directing, stimulating and impelling the Christian 
life within families. What is heard in the Church is car- 
ried into the family circle, and affords material for in- 



Chap. XXXIII.] THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 465 

struction and practice during the rest of the week. While 
family life even among church members is very largely 
far beneath this ideal, and while also there are many godly 
persons outside of families, or in families where there is 
little sympathy with what is Christian, .nevertheless, as a 
rule, the leaders of God's people in all ages of the Church 
have been trained under such conditions. It is the office 
of the Church and the ministry, not only to deal with men 
as individuals, but also to create, protect and promote the 
family as the chief center of religious life and activity. 

4. What is a Christian Family? 

A number of Christian people forming one household 
as the result of the marriage of a Christian man with a 
Christian woman. Summits amicitiae gr adits est foedus 
conjugate (Melanchthon). 

5. Is it wrong for one in the communion of the Church 
to marry an unbeliever? 

Two distinctions must be made here: (a) A marriage 
may be lawful, but not advisable, (b) One baptized and 
a child himself of a Christian family, and showing an out- 
ward respect for Christianity, must not be accounted at 
once an unbeliever simply because of not being in the com- 
munion of some particular congregation. The question, 
as we must answer it, is where there is an avowed antag- 
onism to Christianity, or such an outward deportment as 
to show clearly the absence of all religious principle. To 
this apply : 

2 Cor. 6:14 — "Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what fel- 
lowship hath righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light 
with darkness?" 1 Cor. 7:39 — "She is free to be married to whom she 
will; only in the Lord." 

6. May there not be a Christian home even with such 
defect? 

There may be, where the Christian husband or wife, 
with positiveness and patience, always lets the Christian 



466 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIII. 

confession be known, and is not rendered indifferent by 
the worldliness of the other. 

i Cor. 7:14 — "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wite, and 
the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother." v. 16 — "i"or how knowest 
thou, O wife, whether thou wilt save thy husband? and how knoweth thou, 
O husband, whether thou wilt save thy wife." 

1 Pet. 3:1 — " i hat even if any obey not the word, they may, without the 
word, be gained by the behavior of their wives, beholding your chaste be- 
havior coupled with fear." 

See Chapter XXVII, 25. 

7. What is the significance of the ecclesiastical mar- 
riage ceremony? 

To testify that a Christian minister has sufficient knowl- 
edge of the parties entering into the relation, to declare 
that it is a union upon which God's blessing can be asked. 
It is an endorsement of the claim that, according to divine 
law, there is no barrier to the marriage then contracted. 

8. Is marriage under any circumstances dissoluble? 

Not according to divine law (Matt. 19:6). A legiti- 
mate divorce, apud forum divinum, does not properly sep- 
arate husband and wife, and dissolve the contract. Its 
office is only to formally declare the contract to have been 
already broken by the crime of one of the parties, and to 
relieve the party sinned against of obligations that were 
contingent upon the fidelity of the one who has been found 
to be faithless. Only God's law can annul or revoke what 
God's law has sanctioned. Man's law cannot touch it. 
"Marriage is the legitimate and indissoluble union of one 
man and one woman'' (Melanchthon, who also main- 
tained that where an offence was so clear as to justify a 
divorce, the guilty party should be punished, like any 
other criminal, by the civil authorities, i. e., divorce and 
the penitentiary should go together). 

9. What are the offences that completely break the 
marriage covenant, and justify divorce? 

Only two: Adultery (Matt. 19:9; 5:32), and Mali- 
cious Desertion (1 Cor. 7: 15). "The separation of per- 



Chap. XXXIII.] THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 467 

sons illegitimately united is properly not divorce, but a 
declaration that there had been no marriage union" 
(Baier). 

10. What care is to be taken in regard to marriages? 
That those entering into this estate are not previously 

related in the prohibited degrees of consanguinity and 
affinity defined in Leviticus 18 . 

11. But if it should be objected that these prohibitions 
belong to the Ceremonial Law, and have been abrogated 
since the coming of Christ, what answer shall be given? 

The first answer is that, in the very same chapter, it is 
expressly said that it was because of their violation of 
these prescriptions, that the Gentiles were punished by 
God's judgments — a statement that could not be applied 
to violations only of the Ceremonial Law. 

Another answer is that Paul's reproof of the church at 
Corinth (i Cor. 5), is because of its passing over a viola- 
tion of this law, without imposing church discipline, and 
that he expressly declares in v. 1, that it is of universal 
application. 

To this may be added the charge of John the Baptist 
against Philip and Herodias (Matt. 14:3, 4), where their 
crime is not simply adultery, but incest. 

12. What other precaution is to be taken? 

That neither has been the guilty party in a proceeding 
for divorce (Matt. 5:32; 19:9; Mark 10:11, 12; Luke 
16: 18), unless the one wronged have meanwhile died. In 
the face of the clear words of prohibition in this case, as 
well as that mentioned under 10, no Christian pastor with 
a good conscience can pronounce over such marriage the 
words : "What God hath joined together," for no word 
of man can make God do what He has declared to be sin. 

13. Can a pastor perform the ceremony for those who 
are avowed atheists or otherwise defiant opponents of the 



468 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIII. 

Christian religion, or when one party professes to be such 
zvhile the other claims to be a Christian? 

This also would involve a lack of pastoral fidelity. 

Num. 24:13 — "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, 
I cannot go beyond the word of Jehovah, to do either good or bad of mine 
own mind; what Jehovah speaketh, that will 1 speak.'' 

14. Should the Church or pastors have anything to do 
with marriages that have been contracted in violation of 
God's law? 

A marriage in clear violation of God's law is a sin not 
only in its beginning, but in its continuance, and subjects 
the persons concerned to Church discipline. Pastoral pru- 
dence however must be exercised in regard to those who 
have erred in ignorance and who, after a long period has 
elapsed, with possibly the responsibilities of a family 
added, come to repentance. 

15. How does the Family, as a divine institution, en- 
able us to estimate other institutions? 

Any alliance or organization, whether of a religious or 
a social nature ; any engagements or occupations, except 
from urgent necessity, that interfere with the cultivation 
of home life, and the fulfilment by husband and wife of 
duties due each other and their children, is a violation of 
the divine order. Even ecclesiastical activities that lead 
to the renunciation of family responsibilities, fall under 
the class condemned in Mark 7:11-13. No Christian 
man or woman, however peculiar the opportunities for 
doing good that invite him from his home, is justified in 
secluding himself from the closest association and the 
most intimate companionship with his family, and partic- 
ularly from exerting within it his most immediate relig- 
ious influence. Something is wrong, when he is known 
and appreciated more by strangers than by his own house- 
hold, or when his interests and enjoyments are largely 
separated from theirs. 

"Marriage, according to God's Word, is not only 



Chap. XXXIII. ] THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 469 

placed on an equality with other conditions of life, but it 
transcends them all, whether they be that of emperor, 
prince, bishop, or whatever they will" (Large Catechism, 
420). No higher dignity could be accorded it, than to be 
made a symbol of the union between Christ and the 
Church (Eph. 5 : 25). 

16. But is not Celibacy especially commended by Paul 
in 1 Cor. 7? 

The language is most explicit in assigning as a reason 
the peculiar circumstances of Christians at Corinth. While 
extolling marriage and in very plain terms showing the 
perils which would come by its disparagement, he advises 
only "by reason of the distress that is upon us" (1 Cor. 
7:26), and as a matter of Christian expediency, that, for 
the time being, no new responsibilities be assumed, but 
that the Corinthian Christians remain precisely as 
they were. 

17. What is meant by Luke 18: 29? 
The passage reads : 

"There is no man that hath left house or wife or brethren or parents or 
children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold 
more in this time, and in the world to come eternal lite." 

In other passages, as e. g., Matt. 10 : 39, similar conso- 
lation is afforded those who for Christ's sake, lose their 
own lives. "Here it would be ridiculous," says the Apol- 
ogy (289), "to hold that it would be a service to God to 
kill ourself. So, too, would be the thought that it is a ser- 
vice to God, without His command, to forsake posses- 
sions, friends, wife and children." The reference is to 
cases where fidelity to the confession of Christ's name has 
resulted or will result in such loss. 

"Take they then our life, 
Goods, fame, child and wife, 
When their worst is done. 
They yet have nothing won, 
The Kingdom ours remaineth." 



47° A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIII. 

There is no reference to a voluntary abandonment of 
them, as though in this way a higher grade of holiness 
were attainable. 

1 8. What of the Christian Family as a center of relig- 
ions influence? 

It is not enough that as individuals we should confess 
Christ's name and live in a manner worthy of His calling, 
but that as members of families we should contribute to 
the formation of centers of influence that should diffuse 
its light and life near and far. Where husband and wife 
have separate interests and provide for children only 
from the instincts of natural affection, or so as to keep 
within the limits of respectability, the family soon disin- 
tegrates and leaves no impression upon the world or 
society. Permanency of family life is rooted in religious 
principle. 

"As experience teaches, that where there are honorable 
old families who stand well and have many children, they 
have their origin in the fact that some of them were well 
brought up and were mindful of their parents. On the 
contrary, it is written of the wicked, 'Let his posterity be 
cut off ; and in the generation following, let his name be 
blotted out' (Ps. 109:13)" (Large Catechism, 410). 

19. Is family religious instruction sufficient? 

No. The children are to be brought to the public ser- 
vices of the Church. In some parts of the country, the 
practice of supporting a church by renting its sittings, has 
largely excluded the children from its services ; and it is 
little wonder that, as they grow up, the habit of church at- 
tendance is never formed. "Let the young people attend 
the preaching, especially during the time when it is de- 
voted to the Catechism, that they may hear it explained, 
and may learn to understand what every part contains, 
and be able to explain what they have heard, and when 



Chap. XXXIII. ] THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY. 47 1 

asked may give a correct answer, so that the preaching 
may not be without profit"' (Large Catechism, 390). 

20. What admonition does the Large Catechism give 
concerning Christian education? 

"If we want to have proper persons both for civil and 
ecclesiastical government, we must spare no diligence, 
time or cost in teaching and educating our children, that 
they may serve God and the world, and we must not think 
only how we may amass money and possessions for them. 
. . . Let every one know, therefore, that above all things 
it is his duty, or otherwise he will lose the divine favor, 
to bring up his children in the fear and knowledge of 
God ; and, if they have talents, to have them instructed 
and trained in a liberal education, that men may be able 
to have their aid in government and in whatever is 
necessary" (p. 415). 

21. How has Luther elsewhere discussed this? 

"In schools of all kinds, the chief and most common 
lesson should be the Scriptures, and for young boys the 
Gospels. Would to God, each town had also a girls' 
school, in which girls might be taught the Gospel for an 
hour daily, either in German or Latin ! . . . Should not 
every Christian be expected, by his ninth or tenth year, 
to know all the holy Gospels, containing as they do his 
very name and life? . . . But where the Holy Scriptures 
are not the rule, I advise no one to send his child. Every- 
thing must perish where God's Word is not studied un- 
ceasingly" (Address to the German Nobility). 

22. Should the school be expected to afford all the 
religious instruction? 

The family must, after all, be the center and chief nur- 
sery of religious life, not only by direct instruction in 
Holy Scripture and the Catechism, and by daily family 
prayer, but especially by the Christian temper and spirit 
which pervade it throughout. No school can take its 



472 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV. 

place, or exert the same amount of influence. All reforms 
in regard to the Christian education of the young should 
begin with the family. 

23. What is the sum and substance of the doctrine con- 
cerning marriage? 

That it has as its chief end, the administration of the 
Word, and the advancement of the kingdom of God. If 
it be sometimes commended as a protection against cer- 
tain temptations, as in Augsburg Confession, Art. XXIII, 
upon the basis of 1 Cor. 7 : 2, this must be understood as 
referring to cases where the higher motive could not be 
appreciated. To marry for this as the chief end, would 
be like being industrious for no other motive than to 
avoid the temptation of stealing. Where marriage is de- 
preciated and its cares and responsibilities are avoided 
except for such reasons as Paul could plead, or where it is 
prohibited by Church or State, a fearful penalty is often 
paid in the corruption of life and morals that follow. It 
is against this that not only the Augsburg Confession, 
but the Apology (247-58, 291) warns, "God avenges 
the contempt of His own gift and ordinance" (Apology, 

255). 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

THE STATE. 

I. What has the State to do with spiritual things? 

It is not a human, but a divine institution (Rom. 
13: 1-4; 1 Peter 2: 13, 14), for the regulation of the ex- 
ternal life, defining the various earthly callings and their 
duties and prescribing the conduct of men in their mani- 
fold relations to each other. It restrains the violence of 
the ungodly, and to the godly it affords not only salutary 
discipline, but also important aid in the discharge of their 
obligations towards both God and men. While often 



Chap. XXXIV.] the state. 473 

abused as an instrument of unrighteousness, nevertheless, 
in its ideal form, as well as in its general effect, it gives 
the Church protection and a place for the latter's admin- 
istration of spiritual interests. 

2. Does the Heavenly Citizenship of the Christian 
{Phil. 3: 20) justify him in indifference to the preroga- 
tives cf earthly citizenship? 

Paul did not hesitate to avail himself of the privileges 
belonging to him as a Roman citizen (Acts 16:37; 
22:25). To neglect them is to fail to use talents which 
God has given, and to forsake at least part of one's earthly 
calling. It is God's order to develop our spiritual capaci- 
ties through our use of that which is bodily ; the heavenly, 
through the earthly; the eternal, through the temporal. 

3. What is the teaching of our Confession on this 
subject? 

"Of civil affairs, they teach that lawful civil ordinances 
are good works of God, and that it is right for Christians 
to bear civil office, to sit as judges, to determine matters 
by the Imperial and other existing laws, to award just 
punishments, to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, 
to make legal contracts, to hold property, to make oath 
when required by the magistrates, to marry, to be given 
in marriage." 'Therefore, Christians are necessarily 
bound to obey their own magistrates and laws, save only 
when commanded to sin, for then they ought to obey 
God rather than men (Acts 5:29)'' (Augsburg Confes- 
sion, Article XVI). 

4. Passing by other acts that are here justified, we ask 
concerning going to war and serving as soldiers. 

War is a great evil ; but it is inevitable in a world of 
sin. Violence is an evil, but must be resorted to when 
other methods are exhausted. A nation without an army 
and navy is like a city without a police force, viz., at the 
mercy of the lawless. The failure of those charged with 



474 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV. 

their protection to strike a blow for the rescue of the in- 
nocent from oppression is not an example of Christian 
love, but an outrage upon divine justice. Peace with 
flagrant violators of law is treachery to God. Hence the 
Gospel brings not only peace, but war — ''peace to men of 
good will" (Luke 2: 14), but war with those who array 
themselves against God's law (Matt. 10:34). Hence 
there will be no ceasing of wars until Christ's return, and 
the reign of sin on earth closes (Matt. 24:6, 7). When 
the soldiers, therefore, came to the preacher of repent- 
ance in the wilderness (Luke 3:24) for spiritual instruc- 
tion, they were not advised to abandon their calling; 
neither was the centurion repelled by our Lord, as one 
whose occupation was unlawful, but, on the contrary, he 
received the highest commendation (Matt. 8: 10), just as 
at a later time Cornelius (Acts 10: 22). The words: "He 
beareth not the sword in vain" (Rom. 13:4), completely 
vindicate war for just grounds, as a last resort. For this 
reason, the Augsburg Confession (Art. XVI), says: "It 
is right for Christians to engage in just wars and serve 
as soldiers." (Art. XX) : "The Emperor may follow 
David's example in making wars to drive away the Turk 
from his country." 

Wars become less numerous and their horrors are miti- 
gated as the principles of Christianity pervade the world. 
Resort to arbitration, instead of the sword, is a result of 
the progress of the Gospel. But terrible as war is, it is 
not the worst evil in the universe. This is found in the 
sin, i. e., the disregard of the rights of God and man, 
which, on the part of the one side or the other (and fre- 
quently of both), occasions war. 

5. Give a summary of the doctrine of the Oath. 

(a) "An oath is an invocation of the name of God, in 
which we ask God to be witness of our heart, viz., that we 
do not wish to deceive men in regard to that whereof we 



Chap. XXXIV.] the state. 475 

testify, and, at the same time, ask God to punish us if we 
should deceive. "' "Since an oath is so serious a matter, and 
it may easily happen that even in lawful cases the name of 
God may be taken in vain, Augustine says that Christ 
censured the custom of taking oath lightly, inconsider- 
ately and without necessity.'' 

(b) "Since useless and rash oaths are forbidden', the 
question is, under what circumstances they are lawful. 
The answer is : Either when the magistrate prescribes or 
our calling requires it. This rule can be clearly drawn 
from examples in Scripture, where the godly are said to 
have used oaths, as Gen. 21 : 23 ; 31 : 53 (cf. Deut. 10 :20 ; 
Is. 45:23 sq.)." Under such circumstances, the oath be- 
comes a religious act, "a confession that he by whom we 
swear is the true God," and "a testimony that His name is 
highly esteemed by us." "Oaths, therefore, ought to be 
required and taken, when every human proof ceases ; 
when otherwise controversies cannot be settled ; when 
the welfare of our neighbor is imperiled ; in short, when 
the glory of God's name is especially concerned in that 
concerning which the oath is taken" (Chemnitz, Loci, 
I, 47 sq.). 

6. What errors have been prevalent concerning the 
relation of Church and State? 

On the one hand, the Church has assumed authority 
over the State. Against this our fathers protested in the 
Augsburg Confession that this involved an entire perver- 
sion of the power granted in the Gospel. This power is 
concerned entirely with spiritual things, the administra- 
tion of the Word and the Sacraments, and the making of 
regulations for this end. "Therefore, since the power of 
the Church grants eternal things, and is exercised only 
by the ministry of the Word, it does not interfere with 
civil government; no more than the. art of singing inter- 
feres with civil government. For civil government deals 



476 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV. 

with other things than does the Gospel ; the civil rulers 
defend not souls, but bodies and bodily things against 
manifest injuries, and restrain men with the sword, and 
with bodily punishments, in order to preserve civil justice 
and peace. Therefore, the power of the Church and the 
civil power must not be confounded'' (Art. XXVIII). 

7. But has not the State also assumed authority over 
the Church? 

This form of usurpation is sometimes called Csesaro- 
papacy, i. e., where, instead of the Pope, a civil ruler un- 
dertakes to exercise power in regard to spiritual things. 
The Civil Ruler has no power to preach the Word, to ad- 
minister the Sacraments, to absolve the penitent or to 
punish for any other offences than those which are out- 
wardly committed. It is a usurpation of power, when 
the State prescribes that which it is the prerogative of a 
Christian congregation to determine, as when it appoints 
pastors, superintendents, bishops, and transfers them 
from place to place ; when it interferes with the exercise 
of such Church discipline as is clearly within the power of 
the congregation or pastor ; when it ordains or regulates 
the Constitution of a Church Body with respect to spir- 
itual functions ; when it appoints or forbids the subject of 
the preaching or of the public prayers ; when it requires 
a pastor to testify in court concerning matters of which 
he has knowledge only from the confidence reposed in 
him as a spiritual adviser ; when by law it attempts to en- 
force the union or the separation of churches one from 
one another, or to discriminate in favor of or against 
those so uniting or separating. 

8. Does not the reorganization of the Church at the 
time of the Reformation afford the precedent for such 
usurpation of pozver on the pari of the State? 

The problem before the Reformers was simply this : 
The break with the traditional Church Government had 



Chap. XXXIV.] the state. 477 

come without their seeking and against their will, when 
they had protested against abuses which were so manifest 
that, in their simplicity, they supposed it was only neces- 
sary to declare what they were in order that they might 
be corrected. To appeal to the people constituting the 
congregations for a reformation of the Church Govern- 
ment was impossible in the condition in which the Refor- 
mation found them. The Preface to the Small Catechism 
shows the condition in which Luther found the churches 
during the Saxon Church Visitation in 1528. He 
says : 'The people, especially those who live in the vil- 
lages, seem to have no knowledge whatever of Christian 
doctrine, and many of the pastors are ignorant and in- 
competent teachers. Nevertheless, they all maintain that 
they are Christians, that they have been baptized, and 
that they have received the Lord's Supper. Yet they can- 
not recite the Lord's Prayer, the Creed or the Ten Com- 
mandments ; they live as if they were irrational creatures, 
and now that the Gospel has come to them, they grossly 
abuse their liberty."' 

Neither the people themselves, nor even the ministry 
was in a condition to undertake so great a responsibility. 
As it was difficult to surrender the hope that the bishops 
might still be won over to the Evangelical cause, and the 
frame work of the old government be then retained under 
their administration, a temporary plan was devised, ac- 
cording to which the chief magistrate of each German 
principality which embraced the Reformation, not as ruler, 
but as the best representative of the laity, assumed episco- 
pal functions, administering ecclesiastical power through 
entirely different agents and advisers from those employed 
in the administration of his civil duties. It was entirely a 
provisional expedient for a peculiar emergency. Neverthe- 
less, not only did it gain permanence with years, but 
gradually the power was claimed as belonging to the 



47§ A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV. 

sovereign as a part of his civil duties. The "Episcopal" 
passed over into the "Territorial form" of Church govern- 
ment, in clear violation of the principles which the Church 
at the Reformation had determined. 

9. May we not derive the inference hence, that the 
precedents of Church government in Europe cannot be 
applied to the circumstances of the Church in America, 
except with great discrimination? 

The Lutheran Church has never had the opportunity 
until in America, to apply her principles without interfer- 
ence from the State. In every regulation and precedent 
transplanted from Europe, the influence of the State 
Church is to be considered, and adjustment to be made to 
the diverse circumstances of a free and self-governing 
Church. 

10. Has any particular form of government higher 
authority than another ? 

With constant recognition of the defect of all earthly 
ordinances, the existing form is generally commended as 
the best for the circumstances and degree of cultivation 
of the people who are addressed in Holy Scripture. The 
desire for radical change is discouraged, except where 
consistency with the past cannot be maintained without 
doing violence to conscience. The course of history, the 
rise and fall of nations, and the modifications in govern- 
ments are regulated by Providential forces over which 
even the most influential leaders have but little direct con- 
trol. Even where their power has been most effective, it 
has generally been so unconsciously and without any pur- 
pose on their part. The Patriarchal, the Theocratic, the 
Monarchical, the Democratic or Republican forms of gov- 
ernment, when established, have all alike divine sanction. 

11. Is the declaration: "Government of the people, by 
the people,, for the people," strictly correct? 

Theologically, it is not. It seems to ignore the supreme 



Chap. XXXIV.] the state. 479 

authority and paramount claims of God. But this, 
doubtless, was not so meant. Such ideal, however, can be 
realized only when, by the new birth, men enter into the 
enjoyment of the Kingship which Christ has provided 
for them (see Chapter XV, 14). We would prefer: 
"Government of God through the people, by God through 
the people, for God through the people." The secular 
power is strong and efficient only when firmly laid upon 
foundations prepared by God. Its most powerful equip- 
ment is the love and confidence of its subjects, springing 
from their fear and love of God, and their appreciation of 
all in the character of a ruler and the manifold laws of the 
State that proceed from the same source. But the arbi- 
trary judgment of the people has no more authority than 
the arbitrary judgment of a despot. Before "the voice of 
the people" can be accepted as "the voice of God," it must 
be tested by the Divine Word. 

12. Upon what principle of the Reformation is a gov- 
ernment of God through the people and by God through 
the people founded? 

Upon the statement of the Protest made at Spires in 
1529 that "in matters pertaining to God's honor and to 
our souls' salvation, every one must stand and give an 
account of himself before God." The principle which was 
defined for the very center of man's being, his spiritual 
life, was sure to work its way out to the circumference ; 
for to the Christian, all things have religious significance. 
It is the principle of the independence of the Christian 
conscience because of its complete subjection alone to 
God, and of individual responsibility to God for the ex- 
ercise of all the trusts and the use of all the opportunities 
of life. 

13. Is it consistent with the Christian calling for one 
as a member of a nation of free rulers to cast his ballot and 
give his support in accord simply with the demands of 



480 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV. 

conventions and caucuses, trusts or unions, employers 
or parties? 

No. A Christian man cannot vote by order. By so 
doing he denies his Christian faith, in virtue of which he 
is no man's bondsman, but a king and priest unto God. It 
is also a violation of the oath of office, if such have been 
made ; for the oath is the solemn recognition of individual 
responsibility, and assertion of the individual's freedom 
of men, in his supreme obligation to God. The con- 
science of no leader in Church or in State, of no political 
party or "ring" within a party, of no caucus or corpora- 
tion, or institution, of no public opinion dare be adopted 
as one's own. The judgment of the Christian is always 
discriminating, and can never be confined by purely 
worldly trammels, without involving a denial of Christ 
He who under circumstances suppressing individual con- 
victions of duty promises loyalty to any authority out- 
side of God's Word, renounces Christ. 

1 Thess. 5:21 — "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." Matt. 
23:9, 10 — "Call no man your father on the earth; for one is your Father, 
even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; tor one is your 
master even Christ." 1 Cor. 7:23 — "Ye were bought with a price; become 
not bondservants of men." Eph. 3:22 — "Not with eye service as men- 
pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord." Rom. 14:12 — 
"Each one of us shall give account of himself to God." 

The Church and the ministry, therefore, do not depart 
from their proper calling, and obtrude into politics, by 
branding all party domination that attempts to suppress 
the conscience of the individual, as essentially and thor- 
oughly immoral, and the prolific root of every other form 
of dishonesty and immorality. 

14. Is the Christian to seek no remedy for manifest 
abuses in the State? 

In an absolute monarchy, and without a Providential 
call, he often can do nothing else than passively submit, 
but in a government in which he is one of the electors, 
i. e., of the rulers, he shares in the responsibility for the 



Chap. XXXIV.] the state. 481 

continuance of a wrong, where his voice and vote may 
contribute something, even though very feebly, towards 
a testimony against it. The strongest influence, however, 
is that which diffuses and deeply implants the principles 
which lie at the foundation of all effective measures to 
bring about a change. Thus our Lord, during His min- 
istry, undermined a number of the deeply entrenched 
and widely extended abuses in the Roman Empire, by 
insisting upon and inspiring that love of man to his fel- 
low-man, with which they could not exist. 

15. What responsibility has the Church in regard to 
lazvs enacted or crimes tolerated under the sanction of 
lazvs, that are clearly contrary to the Holy Scriptures? 

We may take as an illustration the laxity of the laws in 
many States concerning Marriage and Divorce. It is un- 
questionably the duty of the Church to clearly present the 
teaching of God's Word on the subject, and to condemn 
all practice in violation of this teaching whether permitted 
by the laws or not ; and to do so, not only by synodical 
action, but in the instruction of catechumens, and in 
preaching from the pulpit, and to enforce discipline 
against members who offend and pastors who place their 
official endorsement upon such irregularities by perform- 
ing the marriage ceremony where the laws of God do not 
allow. But the organization of the Church cannot be 
legitimately used as political machinery to effect a change. 
In efforts to correct abuses in the State, Christians must 
act not as members of a Church, but as citizens with con- 
sciences enlightened and stimulated by all the influences 
derived from the Church's instruction. The two spheres 
must be carefully distinguished. Fidelity to God may re- 
quire duties just as clearly in the one sphere as in the 
other. But ecclesiastical must no more mingle with po- 
litical duties, than political domination over the Church 
be tolerated. What we condemn in the Pope when he 



482 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV. 

undertakes to exercise temporal power, and in an abso- 
lute monarch when he encroaches upon the functions of 
the Church, is no less to be condemned when, instead of 
the Pope we have an organized Church, or instead of the 
monarch, "the sovereign people." 

16. Has one State no responsibility with respect to 
wrongs that outrage humanity continued for years by 
another State, and in the face of repeated protests? 

There are extraordinary circumstances when the com- 
mon brotherhood of man, exclusive of all suggestions of 
self-interest, asserts itself. An overwhelming calamity 
impoverishing a State, as an inroad of famine or pesti- 
lence, justifies measures of relief. So atrocities such as 
those under Turkish rule, with which Christendom is 
periodically startled and shocked, may well suggest the 
thought as to whether the commonwealth of nations 
should tolerate a government, whose rule is stained by 
such succession of crimes, and which seems to be founded 
throughout upon violence and oppression. Such was 
Luther's judgment concerning the Turk. The question 
is as to whether the same extraordinary circumstances 
which justify the interference of an individual in the fam- 
ily of his neighbor, as when he rescues a wife from the 
murderous blows of her husband, are not also to be con- 
sidered with respect to nations. 

17. Is it within the power of the State to punish 
heresy? 

No, so far as it concerns only the private opinions of 
individuals ; or even their public confession, provided this 
involve no immoral practice. It is the office of the Church 
to take cognizance of spiritual things, as they belong both 
to the inner and the outer life. It is the office of the State 
to deal only with the external life. 

18. But cannot the State make religions tests? 

Only when they are directly connected with the exter- 



Chap. XXXIV.] the state. 483 

nal life, as when e. g., a Mormon would not be admitted 
to hold office, where the ground of exclusion would be, 
not his adherence to the Book of Mormon, but his justifi- 
cation of polygamy as practiced contrary to the laws of 
the State and in violation of sound morality ; or where an 
Atheist would not be permitted to testify in court, upon 
the ground that his denial of God and a future world 
destroyed all guarantee of his respect for truth. But even 
such exclusion is something very different from death, 
fine or imprisonment. The State has the right, from mo- 
tives of public policy, to make whatever provisions it sees 
fit to limit the exercise of privileges or the holding of 
offices to certain classes of the community, or to discrim- 
inate against others ; and religious lines may sometimes 
determine such policy, as where the accession to a throne 
may be conditional upon adherence to a particular Con- 
fession, or as ministers of all churches are by law ex- 
cluded from the precincts of Girard College. 

9 

19. Did Luther never advocate the punishment of 
heresy by death? 

Never. When he demanded the punishment of Ana- 
baptists by the State, it was not because of their doctrine; 
but because they incited insurrections and sought to over- 
throw the magistracy. Under the guise of religion, they 
plotted against the State, and, wherever the opportunity 
came, usurped its power. 

20. Is the Staie, therefore, without jurisdiction in 
regard to ecclesiastical affairs? 

The external affairs of the Church enter within a 
sphere where they cannot be ignored by the State. The 
Church has a body as well as a soul ; and this body, like 
all other corporations, falls under the control of the civil 
government. If it is to have a fixed place of worship, it 
will not be long before it must acquire property by a legal 
title, and must be able to enforce its right to that property 



484 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIV 

before the courts. If its various congregations are to 
have any permanency, it must have officers whose time 
and labor must be secured by the collection of funds ; and 
these funds must be regulated by law. If it is to distribute 
alms, and to accumulate means by receiving bequests 
and donations, it will need at every step the aid of legal 
provisions. As a promoter of public morality, and the 
greatest prop whereby to support, by moral sentiment, the 
authority of the government, it can justly ask certain 
favors and exemptions. As Marriage has both its relig- 
ious and its civil side, the State often provides for what 
is practically a combination of the two offices and consti- 
tutes ministers officers of the courts for this purpose, un- 
der the strict guardianship and supervision of law. It is 
the duty of the State also to clearly define the limits of the 
ecclesiastical sphere, and to keep it rigorously within its 
own bounds, in order that the authority of religion may 
not be invoked, as has often been done, for what is clearly 
an infringement of civil law. It may appoint days of 
fasting, of prayer and of thanksgiving ; and under special 
stress of circumstances ask that the attention of Christian 
congregations be called to certain subjects closely con- 
nected with its supervision. It is also within its power to 
adapt its ecclesiastical requirements to the distinctive 
features of the various Confessions represented among its 
subjects. 

21. What can be said concerning the varied lots of 
Earthly Governments? 

Earthly States, like men, are born, grow, flourish, de- 
cline and die. Each kingdom and empire and republic is 
a part of a great world-plan, of which its founders know 
nothing, and which no cotemporary generation can in- 
terpret for itself. Each nationality has its peculiar type 
of character and its especial mission with reference to the 
Kingdom of God. The Philosophy of History is outlined 



Chap. XXXV.] LIFE AFTER DEATH. 485 

in Nebuchadnezzar's vision with its earthly empires suc- 
ceeding one another, until displaced by the stone cut out 
of the mountain without hands (Dan. 2: 35). 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

LIFE AFTER DEATH. 

1. Towards what end are the entire Revelation of God 
in Christ and all the details of the Plan of Redemption 
which it announces, directed? 

Towards a world to come. There is a concurrence of 
all things towards results not attainable in this life, but 
in one that is to follow. The consequences of sin in their 
full measure, the deliverance from sin in its full extent, 
the positive blessings of divine grace in their complete 
significance, and the glory of the Kingdom of God, ex- 
cept in its feeblest beginnings, await a consummation that 
comes only after this world has passed away. 

Rom. 8:18 — "The sufferings ot this present time are not worthy to be 
comparea with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Gal. 1 14 — "That 
he might deliver us out of this present evil world." 1 Tim. 4:8 — "Having 
promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come." Matt. 
12:32 — "Whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall be tor- 
given him neither in this world, nor in that which is to come." 2 Pet. 
3:13 — "According to his promise, we look tor new heavens and a new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness." 

2. What is Death? 

In its most usual sense, it denotes bodily or temporal 
death, i. e., the separation of the immortal soul from the 
body. As has been shown before (Chapter VIII, 17, 18), 
there are three forms or rather stages of death, viz., spir- 
itual, temporal and eternal. It is the office of divine grace 
to interfere with and remove spiritual death in this world, 
so that, while temporal death still remains, it is trans- 
formed into an instrument of blessing, and eternal death 
is supplanted by eternal life. 

3. What is peculiar about man's death? 

It is contrary to the order of Creation. Unlike other 



486 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXV, 

creatures, man was endowed with the Image of God, one 
of the features of which was Immortality (see Chapter 
VII, 23-33). Soul and body were created to be forever 
united, and the separation is a violent interruption of 
God's order. It results in a condition that God never in- 
tended. While a body is not essential for the soul, since 
the soul can exist without it ; nevertheless soul without 
body is in an incomplete and abnormal condition. Man, 
without body, is deformed, and mutilated by his deprival 
of an important constituent of his nature (Chapter VII, 
6-8), The highest goal of man, in his present state, is 
not incorporeity ; but beyond this, the final restoration of 
body to soul, after the period of separation has been 
completed (2 Cor. 5:4). 

4. What is the relation of death to the two parts of 
mans being that are thereby separated? 

Death not only separates body from soul, but it resolves 
the body into its constituent elements. 

Ecc. 12:7 — "The dust returneth to the earth as it was, and the spirit 
returneth unto God who gave it." 

The soul, however, as the center of man's personality, 
is itself unaffected by death, except as it suffers by the 
loss of a body. The continuity of personal existence is 
clearly taught in such passages as Luke 23 : 43 ; 16 : 19 
sqq. ; 2 Cor. 5:1; Rev. 14: 13, among many others. 

5. Is the doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul pe- 
culiar to Christianity ? 

With exceptions that often require only closer investi- 
gation to remove them, this doctrine underlies all the re- 
ligions of the world, and has been maintained by the 
deepest thinkers even where Christianity was unknown. 
It has been supported by a series of arguments closely 
resembling those adduced by Natural Theology for the 
Existence of God. Such are: 

(a) The Metaphysical Proof, from the simplicity and 
immateriality of the soul. 



Chap. XXXV.] LIFE AFTER DEATH. 487 

(b) The Teleological Proof, from the inadequacy of 
this life to satisfy the aspirations of man's heart, or to 
fully exercise his higher capacities. "Without immortality, 
life is a beginning without an end, a question without an 
answer, the merest outline, a torso, a fragment, a race 
without a goal, a battle without a victory" (Kahnis). 

(c) The Analogical. No absolute annihilation in Na- 
ture. One life is developed out of another — the plant out 
of the seed, the butterfly out of the caterpillar, etc. 

(d) The Moral. In this life, virtues do not receive the 
rewards, and vices the punishments that are their due. 
Hence there must be a future in which all these inequal- 
ities will be adjusted. 

(e) The Theological. The communion of man with 
God in this life must be the foretaste of a higher com- 
munion hereafter. 

(f) The Historical. From the universality of its ac- 
ceptance (ex consensu gentium et sapientum). 

6. What estimate is io be placed upon these proofs? 
Like the arguments for the existence of God, they are 

not properly proofs, but are efforts of man, as he reflects 
upon himself to explain and adjust what he finds to be an 
inevitable inference from his deepest thought, intensest 
convictions and predominant motives. The thought of im- 
mortality seems inseparable from the consciousness of per- 
sonality. Like all other doctrines of Natural Religion, it 
exists only as an hypothesis, until established upon the 
firm foundation of Divine Revelation. What Natural 
Theology only suggests becomes a certainty through the 
Gospel. 

2 Tim. 1:10 — "Who hath brought life and immortality to light through 
the gospel." 

7. Hozv may this be illustrated? 

Let us consider the first argument above adduced, the 
Metaphysical Proof, which endeavors to establish immor- 
tality upon the very nature of the soul. But immortality 



488 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXV. 

in the absolute sense belongs only to God (1 Tim. 6: 16), 
and, therefore, belongs per se only to the Divine Nature. 
'The ncn posse mori of man is not based necessarily upon 
the nature of the soul. If men — all men, not merely the 
godly, but the godless, not merely the spiritual, but the 
unspiritual — are preserved eternally beyond bodily death, 
the reason for this is found not in the nature of the soul 
itself, but in the will of God who sustains them ; and that 
God so wills, can be known only from His Word. What 
we need to investigate is not the nature of the soul, but 
the Word of God" (Kliefoth). "The Christian has no 
need of the philosophical proofs for the immortality of the 
soul. He acknowledges but one proof for immortality, 
the biblical, and that is enough for him" (Rohnert). 

8. Has there been no progress in ihe revelation of this 
doctrine? 

The Old Testament only incidentally alludes to the 
future life, but in terms certainly implying the continuity 
of existence after death and life beyond the grave. The 
departed are said to be gathered to their fathers (Gen. 
2 5 : 8; 35:29, etc). The translation of Enoch (Gen. 
5:24), and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11), points to another 
state of existence. So also such passages as 

Ps. 16:10, 11 — "For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; neither wilt 
thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption." 

Our Lord expounds the Old Testament doctrine of 
Immortality in Luke 20 : 37, 38, where, in His argument 
for the Resurrection, from the expression "the God of 
Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" 
(Ex. 3:6), He declares: 

"Now he is not the God ot the dead, but of the living; tor all live unto 
him." 

But while the doctrine is contained in the Old Testa- 
ment, it is only in the New Testament that it appears in 
its complete form. (See 2 Tim. 6: 10; above, under 6.) 
Even in the New Testament, there is progress in its rev- 



Chap. XXXV.] LIFE AFTER DEATH. 489 

elation ; since it was not until Christ arose from the dead, 
that this doctrine in its final form became manifest. 

9. What causes of this separation are enumerated in 
Scripture ? 

Three are mentioned : 

(a) The devil. 

John 8:44 — "He is a murderer trom the beginning." 

(b) Man's sin. 

James 1:15 — "Sin when it is fullgrown, bringeth forth death." 

(c) The judgment of God. 

Rom. 6:23 — "The wages ot sin is death." 

As to the first, sin entered the world through the temp- 
tation addressed our first parents by Satan, from hatred 
of God and envy of their happy estate, as the account of 
Gen. 3 shows. 

As to the second, nothing can be more explicit than the 
statement of Rom. 5 : 12, ''As through one man sin en- 
tered into the world, and death through sin, and so death 
passed unto all men, for that all sinned." 

As to the third, while God has no pleasure in the death 
of him that dieth (Ez. 18: 23), yet as a most just judge 
He has to pronounce sentence upon the guilty. 

Ps. 90:3 — "Thou turnest man to destruction, and sayest, Return, ye chil- 
dren ot men." v. 7 — "For we are consumed in thine anger and by thy 
wrath are we troubled." 

10. Is bodily or temporal death limited to the moment 
of separation of soul from the body and the state which 
succeeds? 

It includes all the sorrows, pains and diseases which 
finally culminate in this event. 

11. What two-fold office does death serve? 

(a) It is a punishment, as has already been shown. 

(b) But according to the Order of Redemption, it is 
also an instrumentality for imparting blessing. 

The beginnings of death, in this world, its sorrows, la- 
bors and pains, as well as the prospect of death which 



49° A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXV, 

awaits every one, awaken the longing for redemption and 
lead to an appreciation of the salvation which God has 
prepared and offers. Thus in Ps. 90, the consideration of 
mortality and its evils, leads to the prayer in vs. 15-17. 
So the Church has adopted, in the same spirit, the se- 
quence of Notker of the Tenth Century, for the burial 
service : "In the midst of life, we are in death. Of whom 
may we seek for succor, but, of Thee, O Lord, who for 
our sins art justly displeased?" 

12. Is this the only way in which ihe curse is changed 
into a blessing? 

To the regenerate, it is no longer a punishment, but a 
chastisement. "To them that are in Christ Jesus," there 
is no wrath and no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Toward 
them God has no other thoughts but those of love. Death, 
therefore, is said to be "abolished" with respect to them 
(2 Tim. 1: 10), i. e., it is of none effect, it has lost its 
power. Instead of being an enemy, it is used by God to 
transfer the believer from the vale of tears to the abodes 
of happiness. 

2 Cor. 5:8 — "We are willing rather to be absent trom the body, and to 
be at home with the Lord." Phil, i -.23 — "Having the desire to depart and 
be with Christ which is very far better." Rev. 14:13 — "Blessed are the 
dead who die in the Lord trom hencetorth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they 
may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them." 

Instead of being victor, it has become a slave to bring 
about his highest blessedness. 

1 Cor. 1:22 — "All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, 
or the world, or life, or death." 15:54 — "Death is swallowed up in vic- 
tory." Is. 57:1, 2 — "The righteous is taken away from the evil to come; 
he entereth into peace." 

"Death itself serves this purpose, viz., to abolish this 
flesh of sin, that we may rise absolutely new. Neither is 
there now in the death of the believer, since by faith he 
has overcome the terrors of death, that sting and sense of 
wrath of , which Paul speaks in i Cor. 15:56. This 
strength of sin, this sense of wrath is truly a punishment 



Chap. XXXV.] LIFE AFTER DEATH. 49 1 

as long as it is present; without this sense of wrath, death 
is not properly a punishment" (Apology, 208). 

"If you hear the Law, it will say in the language of the 
ancient chant : 'In the midst of life, we are in death.' But 
the Gospel and faith invert this, and sing: 'In the midst of 
death, we are in life.' The Gospel teaches in death itself 
there is life — a thought unknown and impossible to rea- 
son'' (Luther, on Genesis, VI, 206. Erl. ed., Latin). 

13. Do the dead carry nothing with them? 

Their personality continues with all its past experiences 
and memories (Luke 16:24, 2 7)- 

14. Have they any knowledge of what is occurring 
on earth? 

No direct knowledge, except by a miracle, can be in- 
ferred from any Scripture testimony. The prayer of the 
souls under the altar in Rev. 6:9-11 may have been 
prompted, by information concerning the condition of the 
Church on earth communicated to them in their heavenly 
abode. 

15. What is the general condition of souls after death? 
"A provisional one between this life of beginning and 

the future life of completion" (Kliefoth). The condition 
prior to the resurrection and the general judgment must 
be regarded so as to give these critical events the import- 
ance with which the Holy Scriptures invest them. It is 
not the hour of death towards which the child of God is 
to look for the realization of his hopes, or against which 
the wicked are warned as the culmination of their doom. 

16. Is the siate one, then, in which the souls of be- 
lievers are subjected to a process of purification and pre- 
paration for heaven? 

There is not the least foundation in Holy Scripture for 
such doctrine. The doctrine of Purgatory, according to 
which those who depart in Christ suffer for a long period 
for venial sins for which thev had made no satisfaction in 



49 2 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXV. 

this life, is in conflict with almost every article of the 
Christian faith. It declares that God inflicts punishment 
where guilt has been forgiven ; that the merits of Christ 
must be supplemented by satisfactions of our own ; that 
the Gospel, instead of providing the free forgiveness of 
sins, only commutes eternal into temporal punishment ; 
that some sins are retained when others are forgiven ; that 
there is condemnation even for those who are in Christ. 

17. Is there any possibility of saving repentance after 
death f 

There is as little foundation for this as for the doctrine 
of Purgatory. Scripture constantly insists upon the fact 
that all the issues of the future world depend upon one's 
attitude towards Christ in this life. 

2 Cor. 6:2 — "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold now is the day 
of salvation." 

If such repentance could occur in the future life, this 
would only be extending the present world into that which 
follows. Or if the offers of salvation were to be made still 
more extensively than here, this would not be "the day of 
salvation," but only its portal or vestibule. It has been 
shown before that no support for such doctrine can be 
derived from the preaching by Christ to the spirits in 
prison (Chapter XII, 44). 

18. May not the state between Death and Resurrection 
be one of unconsciousness? 

In support of this, the frequent references in Holy 
Scripture to death as "a sleep" are cited. The figure is 
one which evidently arises from the resemblance of one 
who is bodily asleep to one who is dead. But as sleep is 
only a suspension of activity, while he enjoys needed rest, 
so the death of the believer is a removal from the cares 
and struggles and activities of this world, in expectation 
of the resurrection which will restore him in body and 
soul to the sphere whence he is taken. That it cannot 
mean a complete suspension of consciousness, and even of 



Chap. XXXV.] LIFE AFTER DEATH. 493 

communications with others is shown from the Parable 
of the Rich Alan and Lazarus (Luke 16:23-31), the 
words of Christ to the penitent thief (Luke 23:43), and 
the blessedness of believers said to begin immediately after 
their departure (Rev. 14:13). 

19. State briefly what is meant by "Life after Death." 
That the godly enter into bliss, and the ungodly into 

misery, at death. The state between Death and the Resur- 
rection differs from that which follows the Resurrection 
and General Judgment only in degree. The line dividing 
the two sections of humanity is fixed at death. The hap- 
piness of the one and the misery of 'the other are both 
inexpressible. 

2 Cor. 5:1 — "For we know that if the earthly house ot our tabernacle be 
dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." v. 8 — "Willing to be absent trom the body, and 
to be at home with the Lord." 

Luke 16:26 — "Between us and your, there is a great gulf fixed." 

20. Is the period between Death and Resurrection one 
that is to be reckoned according to the standard by which 
time is measured in this life? 

Luther repeatedly warns us that the Eternal World is 
above and beyond the limitations of time. "Before God 
a thousand years are scarcely a day ; and when the Resur- 
rection comes, it will seem to Adam and the old fathers, as 
though they had been alive only a half hour before" (Erl 
ed., 18: 267). He compares it to our experience in sleep- 
ing and waking. "Often have I tried to observe the mo- 
ment in which I fell asleep and awoke ; but before I could 
notice that I was asleep, I was again awake'" (On Genesis 
XXV, Erl., Latin, VI, 330). 

21. What may be said concerning the very limited 
amount of details which Holy Scripture gives on the 
whole subject of Life after Death? 

That there is nothing more that it is profitable for us to 
know ; and, therefore, that additional speculation is worse 
than useless. 



494 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVL 



CHAPTER XXXVL 

THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 

1. What is the Resurrection of the Dead? 

The restoration to the immortal soul of the body with 
which it was endowed in this world. "I believe the res- 
urrection of the body" (carnis resurrectionem, Apostles* 
Creed). "I look for the resurrection of the dead" (Ni- 
cene Creed). "At whose coming all men shall rise again 
with their bodies" (Athanasian Creed). "At the con- 
summation of the world, Christ shall appear for judg- 
ment, and shall raise up all the dead" (Augsburg Confes- 
sion, Art. XVII). "And shall raise up me and all the 
dead at the last day" (Small Catechism). "Scripture 
testifies that it is precisely the substance of this our flesh, 
but without sin, which will rise again" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 548). 

2. What scriptural grounds are there for this 
doctrine? 

First of all, our Lord has declared that they who deny 
or misinterpret this doctrine have no knowledge of Scrip- 
ture (Matt. 22: 19). The reference here is of course to 
the Scriptures then in the hands of His hearers, viz., of 
the Old Testament. A few out of many other passages 
may be cited : 

John 5:28, 29 — "The hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs 
shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto 
the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection 
of judgment." 6:39 — "This is the will of mm that sent me, that of all 
that which he hath given me, 1 should lose nothing, but should raise it up 
at the last day." 

1 Cor. 15:12-14 — "Now if Christ hath been preached unto you that he 
hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no 
resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, 
neither hath Christ been raised; and it Christ hath not been raised, then 
is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain." 1 Thess. 4:16 — "And the 
dead in Christ shall rise first." . 

Holy Scripture charges it as the characteristic error of 



Chap. XXXVI.] RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 495 

the Sadducees, that they denied the doctrine of the resur- 
rection (Mark 12:18-23; Ltake 20:27-33; Acts 4:2; 
23:6-8). 

3. Is the New Testament content with declaring the 
Resurrection as an irrefutable fact? 

No. It enters into arguments, some of them of consid- 
erable length, to establish it. Those directly given and 
those which may be drawn by just inference from other 
passages are ; 

(1) The resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15) ; (2) The 
Justice of God (2 Cor. 5 : 10). As men have sinned in the 
body they are also judged in the body. (3) The salvation 
which redemption brings for the body as well as the soul 
(1 Cor. 6: 15; Rom. 6: 12, 13). (4) The refashioning of 
the body after the model of the risen body of Christ (Phil. 
3:20, 21; 1 Cor. 15:49) ; (5) Incorporation with Christ 
and participation in His resurrection-power through bap- 
tism (Rom. 6:3; Col. 2:12). (6) The translation of 
Enoch, Moses and Elijah. (7) The figure of the first 
fruits (1 Cor. 15:20). (8) Examples afforded of those 
who have arisen from the dead : the daughter of Jairus 
(Matt. 9:25), Lazarus (John 11:43), Tabitha (Acts 
9:41), the widow's son (Luke 7: 15), those who arose at 
the burial of Christ (Matt. 27: 52), as well as Old Testa- 
ment examples (1 Kings 17:22; 2 Kings 4:35). 

4. What is the value of the Old Testament prophecies 
concerning the Resurrection? 

Their full force can be appreciated and their true mean- 
ing interpreted only in the light of the New Testament. 
Such passages are : 

Is. 26:19 — "Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise." Dan. 12:2 
• — "And many ot them that sleep in the dust ot the earth shall awake, some 
to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Ez. 
37:1-14 — The vision of the dead bones. Hos. 12:14 — "I will ransom 
them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death; O death 
where are thy plagues; O Sheol where is thy destruction." Ps. 17:15; 49:15; 
Job 14:12-15. 



496 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVI. 

They were sufficient to cherish the popular belief and 
expectation of the Resurrection before that of Christ 
had completely established it. It is only in the 
New Testament that we read of the universality of the 
Resurrection. 

5. Is this article known by the Light of Nature? 

The Existence of God ; the Justice of God ; the Immor- 
tality of the Soul, are sometimes called "Mixed Articles 
of faith," because they are suggested by Nature, although 
fully established only by revelation. But in the Resurrec- 
tion of the Dead, we have a "Pure Article," i. e., one that 
is unknown except by revelation, 'and which never can be 
demonstrated or supported by philosophical argumenta- 
tion. When Paul preached the doctrine to the Greek phil- 
osophers at Athens, the report is (Acts 17:32) 

"Now when they heard of the resurrection ot the dead, some mocked, 
but others said, We will hear thee again ot this matter." 

When he argued it before the Roman governor (Acts 
26:8), the result was that he was pronounced insane 
(Acts 26: 24). Even the disciples, who not only had back 
of them the Old Testament prophecies, and the general 
belief of the Jewish people, but, most of all, had been for 
years pupils in the school of Christ, were persuaded with 
the utmost difficulty to admit the possibility of their 
Lord's resurrection (Luke 24:11; John 20:25; Matt. 
28: 17). 

It is, however, not an unusual argument in Holy Scrip- 
ture to show the absurdities into which persons must fall 
who are unwilling to accept anything as true except when 
they can understand the reason for its existence (1 Cor. 
15:36-38; John 3:7, 8; Job 38—41). (See Chapter I, 

27, 32). 

6. What has been a frequent method of explaining 
away the Resurrection? 

By interpreting it as a graphic mode of stating the Im- 



Chap. XXXVI. ] RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 497 

mortality of the Soul, or by referring it to spiritual quick- 
ening from the death of sin. Concerning such errors, it 
is said : 

2 Tim. 2:16, 17 — "Their word will eat as doth a gangrene; ot whom is 
Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who concerning the truth have erred, saying 
that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith ot some." 

7. Whence does the Resurrection come? 

By no power inhering in the body which gradually ma- 
tures, nor by any influence exerted upon it from the soul ; 
not even by a new power introduced through regeneration 
or by a peculiar immanence of the Holy Spirit in the 
bodies of believers, or by the effects produced by sacra- 
mental grace — since like death, the Resurrection is com- 
mon to regenerate and unregenerate ; but by a new and 
direct act of God operating outside of and beyond hu- 
man nature. The same Omnipotence that originally 
called the world out of nothing intervenes to restore to the 
soul its body that has mouldered to dust. 

8. Who will raise the dead? 

The act is referred sometimes simply to God as in 
2 Cor. 1 : 9; 1 Cor. 15 : 38, and to each of the persons of 
the Trinity, the Father (John 5:21; 2 Cor. 4: 14, com- 
pared with Acts 3:26), the Son (John 5:25), the Holy 
Spirit (Rom. 8: 11). (See Chapter III, 62, 63.) 

It is referred, however, repeatedly to the Son in a pe- 
culiar way. 

John 6:40 — "I will raise him up at the last day." i Thess. 4:14 — "Them 
that are asleep in Jesus will God bring with him." John 11:25 — "1 am the 
resurrection and the life." 5:28, 29 — "All that are in their tombs shall 
hear his voice and shall come forth." 

It is an act not simply of His divine nature, but of the 
person also through the human nature. As the power to 
judge is given him, "because he is the Son of man," so 
also the power to raise again the dead. 

1 Cor. 15:21 — "For since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection from the dead." 

In raising the dead, He exercises one of the functions 
of His Mediatorial Office as King (Chapter XV). 



49^ A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVI. 

Rom. 14:9 — "For to this end, Christ died and lived again, that he might 
be Lord of both the dead and the living." 

9. By what means will they be raised? 

Not by the mere will and silent energy of the Son of 
God, but by His "voice"' (John 5:28). As He spake, 
"Talitha cuir.i" (Mark 5:41), "Young man, I say unto 
thee, Arise" (Luke 7: 14), "Lazarus, come forth" (John 
11:43), so the word is the efficacious means here. At- 
tending or preparatory to this will be "the voice of the 
archangel and the trump of God" (1 Thess. 4: 16), "His 
angels with a great sound of a trumpet" (Matt. 24:31). 

1 Cor. 15:52 — "For the trumpet shall sound." 

"What or of what nature this trumpet will be we think 
that no one can exactly know, and, for this reason, its ex- 
planation is most properly deferred until the event occurs. 
This, however, is certain, that it will serve to assemble 
men to the judgment seat of Christ" (Gerhard, "Har- 
mony," p. 753). 

10. Who will be raised? 

All who shall have died. "All who are in the tombs 
shall hear his voice" (John 5 : 28). Not merely the right- 
eous, but also the wicked ; "they that have done good unto 
the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, to 
the resurrection of Judgment" (John 5:29). "All the 
nations" (Matt. 25:32), "the small," i. e., children, as 
well as "the great," i. e., adults (Rev. 20: 12). Enoch 
and Elijah who were translated without seeing death are 
of course excepted, as well as those who arose at Christ's 
death and who may have been similarly translated 
(Matt. 2-j\ 52). 

11. Will the ungodly be raised again because of ihe 
merits of Christ? 

No. The ungodly will rise, not in virtue of Christ's 
merits, but because of God's immutable decree, by which 
it was appointed unto man once to die, but after that the 



Chap. XXXVI.] RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 499 

judgment (Heb. 9:27). The justice of God demands 
that the body which has sinned share in the punishments 
of sin. Nowhere are any other than salutary effects as- 
cribed to the resurrection of Christ. 1 Cor. 1 : 22, "In 
Christ, shall all be made alive," must, therefore, be un- 
derstood, not absolutely and universally, but in accord- 
ance with the argument which is directed to exhibiting 
the blessings brought by Christ's resurrection, and the 
immediate context which shows how Christ is the first 
fruits of the harvest that follows. 

12. Will the Resurrection Body be a material body? 
It will be of the same nature as that which Christ had 
after His resurrection. 

Phil. 3:21 — "Who shall tashion anew the body ot our humiliation, that 
it may be conformed to the body ot his glory." 

Since Christ, however, offered His resurrection body to 
the test of the senses, 

Luke 24:39 — "See my hands and my teet. Handle me and see; tor a 
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having." 

and as further He showed to Thomas the very wounds 
of the crucifixion (John 20: 27), it is a real and material 
body that is assumed, and the very same body, although 
with new attributes, that the person had during his resi- 
dence on earth. 

The literal Resurrection of the Body, established by the 
texts of Scripture above given is confirmed further : 

(a) From the article of Creation. For man was created 
both with soul and body. If the literal body were not to 
share in the salvation brought the soul, the evil wrought 
by sin would not be entirely repaired, and man's being 
would be incomplete to all eternity as one consequence 
of sin. 

(b) From the article of Redemption. For Christ re- 
deemed the body as well as the soul. Very significant are 
the words of 1 Cor. 6 : 13, "The body is for the Lord ; and 
the Lord for the body." Of this the greatest pledge is 



500 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVI. 

His Incarnation, in which He assumed not only a human 
soul, but also a human body. In the Lord's Supper He 
reminds us of the important place in redemption which 
His body bore, and, thereby, suggests the destiny of the 
bodies of those who have been thus redeemed. 
(c) From the article of Sanctification. 

Rom. 12:1 — "Present your bodies a living sacrifice." 1 Cor. 6:15 — '"Know 
ye not that your bodies are members of Christ." 

The various bodily organs are specified as partakers of 
this sanctification, viz., the mouth (Eph. 4:29), the 
tongue (1 Peter 3: 15), the hands (Eph. 4:28), the feet 
(Rom. 10: 15 ; Matt. 25 : 36), the eyes (Ps. 119:37, 18), 
the ears (James 1:19), the members in general 
(Rom. 6: 13). 

13. Do you hold that there is necessarily an atomistic 
identity between the body that is buried and the one that 
is raised ? 

Such identity does not continue even in this life. The 
atoms of matter that constitute our bodies are constantly 
changing. The adult body is one that has been repeatedly 
changed in all its constituents since infancy. Neverthe- 
less the features are the same, and the scars of wounds 
remain. 

Of the Resurrection Body we are justified in affirming 
no other identity with that which is buried, than that 
which belongs to the body at two periods in the present 
world. Or to use the figure of the Resurrection proposed 
by Paul in 1 Cor. 15 : 37, 38, there is no atomistic identity 
of the grain of wheat sown this fall with the harvest 
^which is gathered next summer. 

14 Do me know anything as to the stature of the Res- 
urrection Body? 

There have been three theories : 

(a) The view given by Lombardus that the bodies of 
believers will conform to the stature of Christ. In favor 
of this Eph. 4:13; Rom. 8 : 29 are cited. The misapplica- 



Chap. XXXVI. ] RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 501 

tion is manifest. Some, upon the same basis, have argued 
that in the resurrection women will become men, so as to 
be conformed to the image of Christ.* 

(b) That of Augustine, according to which every one 
will have the form he had or would have in the maturity 
of his youth. Here again Eph. 4: 13 is misapplied. 

(c) That of Gerhard which teaches that every one will 
rise at the age and with the stature he bad at death. This 
is maintained on the basis of the distinction between the 
dead "great and small" that is taught in Rev. 11:18; 
20 : 12. 

15. What are the Attributes of the Resurrection 
Body? 

While the body is the same, it has certain new qualities. 
Scripture is very explicit in the enumeration of the attri- 
butes of the resurrection bodies of the godly ; those of the 
ungodly can be known only by inference. 

First of all, it teaches that the resurrection body will be 
much more than a restoral of that which believers have in 
this life, much more even than the sinless body of Adam, 
prior to the Fall, and without the weaknesses and dis- 
eases that then entered. It will be fashioned not after the 
image of the First, but of the Second Adam. 

1 Cor. 15:49 — "As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also 
bear the image of the heavenly." Phil. 3:21 — "That it may be conformed 
to the body of his glory." 

What was observed, therefore, concerning the body of 
Christ during the period between His resurrection and 
ascension, aids in the interpretation of the discussion of 
these attributes in I Cor. 15:39-50, 53-55. 

16. Enumerate, therefore, these Attributes. 

They are: (1) Immortality and Incorruptibility; (2) 
Glory and Brilliancy; (3) Perfection of Powers; (4) 
Spirituality. 



^Noticed and refuted by Augustine (De Civitate Dei, xxii, 17). 



502 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVI. 

17. Explain them in detail. 

(1) Immortality. 

Luke 20:36 — "For neither can they die any more." 1 Cor. 15:42 — "It is 
sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption." 

This includes immunity from all sufferings, from hun- 
ger and thirst, from disease and pain, as well as from the 
possibility of death. 

Rev. 7:16 — "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither 
shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat." 

(2) Glory and Brilliancy. 

1 Cor. 15:43- — "It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory." Matt. 
1 3'-43 — "Then shall the righteous shine torth as the sun in the kingdom ot 
< their lather." Dan. 12:3; 2 Cor. 3:18. 

Everything that defiled and rendered the body unsightly 
will disappear. All the lines of care and anxiety, all the 
traces of disease will vanish. The whole body and 
especially the countenance will reflect the glory of God, 
as Moses on descending from the Mount (Ex. 34:25), 
and our Lord at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17:2). But 
this glory will not be equal ; it will have its degrees. 

1 Cor. 15:41 — "One star diftereth from another star in glory." 

(3) Perfection of Powers. 

1 Cor. 15:43 — "It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power." 

Instead of inability to meet the demands of the present 
life, it will be endowed with all the capacities needed for 
the service of God in the higher life. While a true body, 
like that of our Lord in His post-resurrection appear- 
ances, it, nevertheless, can be at will superior to the at- 
traction of gravitation, just as He could appear in closed 
rooms or could walk on the waves or ascend into heaven. 
The sight of God promised the godly may be through 
the eyes of the resurrection body ( 1 John 3:2; 1 Cor. 
13:12). 

"The body will have sharp eyes, so as to be able to see 
through a mountain, and quick ears, so as to be able to 
hear from one end of the earth to the other" (Luther). 



Chap. XXXVI.] RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. 503 

(4) Spirituality. 

1 Cor. 15:44 — "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. 
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." 

This cannot ,mean that the body is to be etherialized, or 
transformed into spirit ; but the reference is to the new 
spiritual properties with which it is endowed, and that 
from the basis of the three preceding attributes. The 
original reads : "It is sown a psychical body ; it is raised 
a spiritual body.'' As, therefore, in this world, "the 
psychical body" cannot mean body that is soul, so, in the 
world to come, "the spiritual body" cannot mean body 
that is spirit. The distinction between "soul" and "spirit" 
(see Chapter VII, 13) must be observed in correctly es- 
timating this passage. "A spiritual body" is one having 
the properties needed for the higher stage of being to 
wmich the body is now elevated. The attribute "heav- 
enly" which is also applied to the resurrection body is 
nothing more than a synonym of "spiritual." 

18. What of the resurrection bodies of the godless? 
They will also be adapted to the condition of their souls 

in the future worl$. They w T ill be immortal and inde- 
structible, but in other respects be the very reverse of the 
bodies of the godly. 

19. What can be said of the last generation of believers 
on earth, zvho do not die, but are alive at the general res- 
urrection? 

Their bodies will be changed, so as to receive the prop- 
erties given those that arise from the dead. 

1 Cor. 15:51 — "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." i 
Thess. 4:15 — "We that are alive, that are left unto the coming ot the Lord, 
shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep." v. 16, 17 — "The 
dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall 
together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the 
air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 

20. Will the Resurrection be a process continuing 
through a considerable period? 

1 Cor. 15:51, 52 — "We shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling 
of an eye, at the last trump." 



504 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

21. If difficulties concerning the Resurrection occur, 
hozv are they to be regarded ? 

"If you want to be Christians, you must believe that 
there will be a Resurrection of the Dead in the flesh, when 
Christ shall come to judge the quick and the dead. But 
our faith concerning this is not vain, if we be not able to 
perfectly comprehend how this will be" (Aug'ustine, De 
Civitate Dei, XX, 20). 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

THE RETURN OF CHRIST. 

1. When will the Resurrection occur? 
At the Second Coming of Christ. 

2. Is the Second Coming promised only with respect 
to its relations to the individual? 

It has reference also to the future of the Church. For 
while its individual members constantly come and go, 
and a few decades, at most, measure the career of its most 
influential leaders, the Church has a life of its own and 
continues unaffected by the removal of generation after 
generation that it trains for heaven. But just as the life 
of the individual, so also the life of the Church has a 
goal ; and that goal is the Second Coming of Christ. 

Eph. 5:27 — "That he might present the church to himself, a glorious 
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be 
holy and without blemish." 

What the Resurrection is to the body, this glorification 
will be to the Church. 

3. What resemblance is there between the condition 
of the Church in this life and that of the individual be- 
liever? 

The Head of the Church is in heaven, while the Church 
itself is on earth. It is like a colony of citizens in a 
strange land, on a remote continent. 

Phil. 3:20 — : '*For our citizenship is in heaven, whence also we wait tor a 
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." 



Chap. XXXVII.] THE RETURN OF CHRIST. 505 

None of the attributes of the Church (Chapter XXIX, 
12-16) are fully realized here. The external does not cor- 
respond to the internal Church. The Unity of the Church 
is impaired by the separations into various confessions 
and parties. Its Holiness, by the sins which are in its 
members, and which often disgrace its outward form. 
Its Apostolicity, by variations from apostolic purity of 
teaching. Its Catholicity, by the fact that it is not univer- 
sally diffused throughout the world. 

Besides this, it is in incessant conflict with the world, 
which, according to the divine ideal, should only serve 
to promote its progress (i Cor. 3:22). Although it is 
its office, according to the divine commission, to fill the 
earth with the message of the Gospel (Matt. 28 : 20 ; Mark 
16: 15; Rom. 10: 18), it meets with most formidable ob- 
stacles at every step forward. The power of the Prince of 
this world (John 16: 11 ; 14:30) continues, until the end 
of this order of things comes. 

4. But is not the pozver of evil gradually broken by the 
preaching of the Gospel and the ividc diffusion of the 
principles of Christianity? 

Until "the end of the world" (Matt. 13 : 40), wheat and 
tares grow together (v. 30), good and evil both advanc- 
ing, the good becoming better and the evil worse. Every 
now and then, throughout the Church's history, there is a 
crisis, when there is an open conflict, as when two poles 
of an electric battery meet and are discharged. This is 
followed by a period of silent recuperation of force on the 
part of both elements. But, as night follows day, and 
winter summer, so every period of the Church's peace and 
prosperity, is followed by one of sorrow and tribulation, 
until, in the very darkest hour of human history, its 
course is forever changed by the return of the Lord Jesus. 

5. What estimate is placed, therefore, upon the Return 
of the Lord? 

All the hopes of believers center upon it, as affording 



506 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

them final and complete deliverance ; and the fruition and 
consummation of God's promises of love. 

John 14:3 — "If I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will 
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." 

Luke 21:28 — "When these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift 
up your heads, because your redemption draweth nigh." 

Tit. 1:13 — "Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the great God 
and our Saviour Jesus Christ." 

2 Thess. 1:10 — "When he shall come to the glorified in his saints, and 
to be marvelled at in all them that believe in that day." 

2 Tim. 4:8 — "The crown which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give 
to me at that day; and not to me only, but to all that have loved his 
appearing." 

Hence the significant expressions "that day'' (Matt, 
7: 22; 2 Thess. 1 : 10; 2 Tim. 1 : 12, 18, etc.) ; "the day of 
the Lord" (2 Peter 1 : 10 ; 1 Thess. 5:2); "the day of the 
Lord Jesus" (1 Cor. 5:5; 2 Cor. 1:14); "the day of 
Christ" (Phil. 1:10; 2 Thess. 2:2); "the day of our 
Lord" (1 Cor. 1:8); "the day" (1 Cor. 3:13); "the 
great day" (Jude 6) ; "the last day" (John 6:39) ; "the 
day of redemption" (Eph. 4.30). It has been termed 
"the day for which all other days were made." 

6. Is there not even a zvider scope for its decision? 
All creation is represented as awaiting it. Rom. 8 : 19, 

"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for 
the revealing of the sons of God." V. 21, "The creation 
itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." 

All this is connected with the resurrection, as v. 23 con- 
tinues : "We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for 
our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." 

7. When will this event, toward which all things tend, 
occur? 

Christ always discouraged and even reproved the ask- 
ing of this question. It was His constant teaching that 
men should be ready for it whenever it would come, 
whether this should be in the immediate future, or should 
be long delayed. Awaiting it in faith, they were to be 



Chap. XXXVII. ] THE RETURN OF CHRIST. 5O/ 

satisfied with whatever time God would appoint for its 
appearance. 

Acts 1:7— "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father 
hath set within his own authority." 

Even He Himself abstained, in His assumed human 
nature, from its knowledge. 

Matt. 24:36 — "But of that day and hour, knoweth no one, not even the 
angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only." 

But while this is a rebuke to all curious speculations 
which can readily prefer eschatological problems to the 
nearest duties of the Christian life, the Holy Scriptures 
give certain signs by which its approach may be known. 

8. What may be said of such signs in general? 

The fullest statement of them is found in Matt. 24, 
Mark 13 and Luke 21. In the examination of these pas- 
sages, considerable difficulty results from the fact that 
the Destruction of Jerusalem and the End of the World 
are considered together. The former being a type of the 
latter, there is a correspondence- of signs; just as history 
is said to repeat itself, or to move in cycles.* 

These signs have been grouped into two classes. Some 
are found at all periods of the world's history ; and point 
forward to Christ's return, just as the bow in the cloud 
points backward to the deliverance effected by the Flood. 
Others are deferred until the event is imminent, and of 
these some indicate a more remote and others a nearer 
approach. The thought underlying this distinction may 
be stated otherwise by saying that signs appearing at the 
very beginning of Christianity and recurring frequently, 
reappear with greater frequency and intensity as the 
end approaches. 

9. What are these signs? 

(1) The Universal Preaching of the Gospel; (2) The 



*No more satisfactory discussion in a brief form, of the relation 01 the 
two events, can be readily found than that of Schaeffer, on Matt. 24, in 
Vol. II of "The Lutheran Commentary," New York, 1895. 



508 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

Conversion of Jews in large numbers; (3) The Decline 
and Oppression of the Church ; (4) Extraordinary His- 
torical Events; (5) Extraordinary occurrences in the 
physical world. 

10. What of the first? 

The Universal Preaching of the Gospel. This we learn 
from : 

Matt. 24:14 — "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole 
world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." 

Acts 1:8 — "Ye shall be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." 

This means that no power or violence shall be able to 
withstand the progress of the Gospel, that no difficulties 
will prevent it from being brought to the knowledge of 
all peoples, that even though many centuries intervene 
and though at times the area of those beneath its influence 
is contracted instead of extended, nevertheless it has a 
world-wide destinv even before the Lord returns to assert 
His authority. Not until the Means of Grace are within 
reach of every human being will the end come. The 
statement is not that Christianity in some form or other, 
but that the simple Gospel, i. e., the gratuitous promise 
of forgiveness of sins (Chapter XXV, 35) in all its clear- 
ness and fulness is to be made known everywhere. 

Mark 13:10 — "The gospel must first be preached unto all the nations." 

We cannot infer that the meaning of these passages is 
that the end will come as soon as missionary preaching 
will reach all nations. In order that the force of "the 
testimony'' may reach them it may be allowed to develop 
its powers in the Christian lives which it will mould, the 
Christian activities it will call into being, and the 
settled churches it will found, during a long period. This 
would be "a time of visitation" for the nations, such as 
Jerusalem once had (Luke 19:42, 44). 

11. What of the second, the Conversion of the Jews? 

Rom. 11:25, 26 — "A hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the ful- 
ness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shail be saved." 



Chap. XXXVII.] THE RETURN OF CHRIST. 509 

t 

"In saying 'all Israel/ the universal must be restricted, 
according to the custom of Scripture, to a great number 
of the Jews. As 'the fulness of the Gentiles' does not 
mean each and every nation, for such conversion of the 
Gentiles to the Church is not to be expected, but only a 
large number of Gentiles, so the salvation and conversion 
of the Jews one and all, is not to be hoped for. It is ap- 
parent, therefore, that Paul is prophesying concerning a 
remarkable conversion of Jews, a large portion of whom, 
before the Last Day, will acknowledge the Messiah and be 
brought to the faith of Christians'' (Baldwin). 

'These words are not received in a uniform sense by 
expositors. Some understood, by the name of Israel, not 
the Jewish people, but all believers without distinction. 
There are others who think that, by this mystery, the 
Apostle wants to indicate that, before the Day of Judg- 
ment, a great multitude of Jews will be converted to the 
Christian faith. While neither interpretation is impious, 
yet when the entire context is more carefully examined, 
the latter explanation, I think, is more in harmony with 
the words and present purpose of Paul" (Hunnius).* 

The meaning is that the hostility of the Jewish race as 
such to Christ will cease. It will be a Christian nation or 
race, like some of the Gentile nations before it, i. e., one 
within which there will be large numbers of truly be- 
lieving spiritually-minded Christian people. 

12. What of the third, the Decline and Oppression of 
the Church ? 

1 Thess. 2:3 — The day ot the Lord will not come, "except the tailing 
away come first." 

As the preaching of the Gospel extends to nation after 
nation, and wins more and more outward adherents, the 
number of those who are Christians only by profession 
increases, and the continuance, under the Christian name, 



*For discussion of the various interpretations of this passage, see my 
"Annotations on Romans," Lutheran Commentary, Vol. VII, 238,246. 



5IO A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

of heathen theories and practices results. As the Church 
directly after the Apostles had to contend against the in- 
troduction into Christianity of ideas and principles from 
the heathen cults of the East, so the converts to Christi- 
anity from every heathen people carry with them into 
their new religious life much of their former heathenism, 
which disappears only after generations have come and 
gone, and that, too, often only after the most severe con- 
flicts. Accompanying this, are the corrupting tendencies 
of the secularizing process in the Church, with its exag- 
geration of the organization and external name and 
machinery above the spiritual conception of the Kingdom 
of God within the hearts of men. With the preaching of 
Law and Gospel obscured, spiritual motives lose their 
power ; and even those who profess the name of Christ 
become more and more absorbed in purely worldly in- 
terests. A flood of false prophets arises within the 
Church (Matt. 24:11). They not only err themselves, 
but seek to make their error the standard of the Church's 
doctrine and practice ; and every protest on the part of 
those who are really spiritually minded excites first their 
ridicule and contempt, and, then, their persecution. This 
process constantly recurring in the history of the Church, 
will reach its most aggravated form, as the end ap- 
proaches. This will be "the great apostasy," which will 
assume to reconstruct Christianity according to the stand- 
ards of a revived heathenism, and produce a religion 
Christian in name, but heathen in spirit and in teaching. 
One of its characteristics will be the security with 
which it will disregard and criticise the promises and 
warnings of Holy Scripture. 

2 Pet. 3:3, 4 — "In the last days, mockers shall come with mockery, walk- 
ing after their lusts, and saying: Where is the promise of his coming? for 
from the day that the fathers tell asleep, all things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the creation." 

Hence both from outside the Church and from the 
ranks of its professed members, successive waves of per- 



Chap. XXXVII. ] THE RETURN OF CHRIST. 51 I 

secution shall spend their fury upon those who faithfully 
confess Christ's name. The early days of Christianity 
will be repeated on a vaster scale : 

Mark 13:9 — "They shall deliver you up to councils; and in synagogues 

shall ye be beaten; and before governors ana kings shall ye stand, tor my 
sake, for a testimony unto them." 

2 Tim. 3:1 — "Know this that in the last days, grievous times shall come." 

13. In what will this spurious Christianity and its 
persecuting spirit be concentrated? 

In Antichrist (Chapter XXIX, 78). First, in a num- 
ber of antichrists : 

1 John 2:18 — "Little children, it is the last hour; and as ye have hear"' 
that antichrist cometh, even now have there arisen many antichrists; where- 
by we know that it is the last hour." 

Thus already in the days of the Apostles, the antichristic 
principle is present and active in prominent representa- 
tives who have been members of the Christian Church ex- 
ternally, as v. 19 declares : "They went out from us." The 
antichristic principle and elements pervade the entire his- 
tory of the Church, just as the tares grow in the wheat 
fields (Matt. 13:24 sqq). At various crises, the power 
of these antichrists is peculiarly active and threatening. 
But they come and go, like the flowers of the field, that 
bloom and then die or are forgotten, while Christianity 
survives, to witness the rise and fall of their successors. 
Wave after wave rushes upon this rock only to be dashed 
to pieces (2 Tim. 3:9). But this force rallies after every 
onset. It reaches its culmination at last in one who is to 
be above all others "the Antichrist." 

2 Thess. 2:3, 4 — "It will not be, except the tailing away come first, and 
the man of sin be revealed, the son ot perdition, he that opposcth and ex- 
alteth himself against all that is called God or is worshippea ; so that he 
sittcth in the temple ot God, setting himself forth as God. vs. 8-10 — "The 
lawless one whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath ot his mouth 
and bring to naught by the manifestation ot his coming; even he whose 
coming is according to the working ot Satan with all power and signs and 
lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish." 

1 John 4:3 — "This is the spirit ot the antichrist whereot ye have heard 
that it cometh." See also Rev. X1-X1V. 

14. When can Christians know for a certainty as to 
who Antichrist isf 



512 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

The details of prophecy can be read only in their fulfil- 
ment (i Peter I : n). While the coming of Christ was 
clearly predicted, who and what He was to be was not 
clearly known until He actually appeared, although the 
scribes with the Old Testament in their hands assumed to 
be true interpreters of its details (John 7:41, 42). So 
concerning Antichrist. The antichristic principles were 
recognizable from the moment of their origination, and as 
they embodied themselves in parties and individuals, "the 
little antichrists," or heresiarchs of Church History. 
These sane principles are working still and should be 
guarded against. 

1 John 4:1 — "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits 
whether they are ot God." 

But it becomes Christians to be reserved in their judg- 
ment as to who precisely will be "the personal concentra- 
tion of sin, the God of this world and the organ of Satan," 
whose sway will be broken and power destroyed by the 
second coming of Christ. 

15. What warning concerning a premature decision 
concerning the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning 
Antichrist does Church History give? 

In periods of great persecution or strenuous opposi- 
tion to the Church, there has always been a disposition to 
find in the particular persecutor or antagonist of the time 
or place, the Antichrist of Scripture.* "When Judaism 
persecuted the first Church, Antichrist was said to be a 
Jew, who was to arise from the tribe of Dan. When the 
Roman Empire attacked Christianity, the Emperors Nero 
and Valerian were regarded as fulfilling this prophecy. 
The African Church saw Antichrist in Genseric the king 
of the Vandals. Mohammed received this title, when his 



*Dr. Julius F. Sachse in "The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania," Vol. 
I (Philadelphia, 1899), 343, gives a translation of the pamphlet of the Ger- 
mantown Dunker, Christopher Saur, published in 1739, against Conrad 
Beissel, founder of the cloister at Ephrata, in which he demonstrates that 
the latter is none else than the 666 of the Apocalypse! The horizon of 
sectarianism is very contracted, and it constantly magnifies what is nearest 
its vision. 



Chap. XXXYIL] the return of christ. 513 

conquests threatened Christendom. The sects of the 
Middle Ages, the Cathari, the Abbott Joachim of Floris, 
the Albigenses, the Hussites referred it to the Papacy" 
(Kliefoth). In this, they were followed by the Reform- 
ers, both Lutheran and Reformed. 

16. Are there not antichristic principles in the Papacy ? 
Melanchthon has enumerated them in the appendix to 

the Schmalkald Articles (345) : 

'The marks of Antichrist plainly agree with the king- 
dom of the Pope and his adherents. For Paul (2 Thess. 
2:3) in describing Antichrist, calls him an enemy of 
Christ, 'who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that 
is called God, or is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in 
the temple of God.' He speaks, therefore, of one ruling 
in the Church, not of heathen kings, and he calls this one 
the adversary of Christ, because he will devise doctrine 
conflicting with the Gospel, and will assume to himself 
divine authority. 

"Now it is manifest : I. The Pope rules in the Church. 

"II. His doctrine conflicts in many ways with the Gos- 
pel and he assumes to himself divine authority in a three- 
fold manner: 1. By assuming the right to change the doc- 
trine of Christ and services instituted by God, and want- 
ing his own doctrine and services to be observed as 
divine. 2. By assuming the power not only of binding 
and loosing in this life, but also authority over souls after 
this life. 3. By not wanting to be judged by the Church 
or by any one, and preferring his own authority to the 
decision of councils and of the entire Church. But to be 
unwilling to be judged by the Church or by any one, is to 
make oneself God. 

'TIL These horrible errors and this impiety he defends 
with the greatest cruelty, and puts to death those dis- 
senting." 

17. Is not this enough to show that the Pope is Anti- 
christ? 



514 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and 
that of the Infallibility of the Pope, both sanctioned and 
proclaimed in the second half of the Nineteenth Century 
are additional items in the evidence beyond what the Re- 
formers had before them ; since the former is intended to 
give to His mother a place that belongs only to her Lord 
and Saviour, and the latter officially and formally declares 
what had long been the claim before, that the voice of the 
Pope must be received as the voice of God. 

Notwithstanding all this, it cannot be shown that every- 
thing is to be found in the Pope that is contained in the 
warnings against Antichrist. There is no open hostility 
or formal denial of Christ, and these are given as marks 
of Antichrist (1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7). Neither 
does the Papacy which is an institution or corporation 
correspond to the Scriptural description of the Pope as an 
individual. Nor can we resort to the expedient of some 
theologians who find the one Antichrist in the succession 
of occupants of the Papal see. ("Antichrist is a man, 
successively one, raised up by Satan," Quenstedt). Anti- 
christ may yet arise out of the Papacy, when all these 
premises are carried to their conclusions, and embodied 
in some monster of wickedness, of Titanic mould, who is 
yet to arise, or the same elements may be asserted from 
some other source. 

For us, the duty is not to speculate concerning a future 
Antichrist, but to be on our guard against all antichristic 
principles, in whatever form or from whatever source 
they come. 

18. What of the fourth sign of the Second Coming, 
viz., the Extraordinary Historical Events ? 

This refers to the prevalence of wars and rumors of 
wars, pestilences, famines, etc. While they occur through 
all time and point forward towards the end, they increase 
in extent and degree, as this approaches. 



Chap. XXXVII. ] THE RETURN OF CHRIST. 515 

19. What of the fifth? 

Earthquakes, eclipses, the falling of stars, and other 
phenomena, transcending the natural order of such events. 
As the period for the efficacy of the Holy Spirit through 
the Word and Sacraments closes, the miraculous element 
again appears. 

20. Will there be a two-fold coming or manifestation 
of Christ ? 

This is held by those who teach that Christ will come 
first to raise the godly, and that they will reign with him 
on earth for a thousand years, after which the wicked will 
be raised, and the General Judgment occur. 

Concerning this the Augsburg Confession, Art. XVII, 
declares : "They teach that in the consummation of the 
world, Christ shall appear to judge, and shall raise up all 
the dead, and shall give unto the godly and elect eternal 
life and everlasting joys ; but ungodly men and the devils 
shall He condemn unto endless torments. . . . They 
condemn others also who now scatter Jewish opinions 
that, before the resurrection of the dead, the godly shall 
occupy the kingdom of the world, the wicked being every- 
where suppressed.'' 

While it is true that this article was directed against the 
gross Chiliasm of the Anabaptists of the Reformation 
period, it clearly disclaims all responsibility for any teach- 
ing that separates between a resurrection for the godly 
and a resurrection for the ungodly by any long period of 
time, and which affirms that there are two coinings of 
Christ in the future. 

21. Why is such opinion rejected? 

Holy Scripture nowhere teaches it. Christ's coming 
and His rewards to the godly and His condemnation of 
the godless are always closely connected in the Scriptural 
accounts of the Judgment. Our Lord expresslv savs that 
it is "at the last day" that He will raise and give eternal 



5l6 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVII. 

life to the believing (John 6: 39, 40). When it is affirmed 
that it has sufficient scriptural basis in Rev. 20: 1-6, the 
answer is that it is not proper to construct a dogma alone 
from a book concerning whose canonicity there has been 
such extended dissent, and to make it the standard where- 
by to interpret the plain language of books whose author- 
ity is most thoroughly established ; particularly when it is 
a book which, from beginning to end, deals in figurative 
statements. Beside this, "the simple fact that Chiliasm has 
almost as many forms as it has advocates, proves how in- 
secure is the scriptural foundation of this doctrine'' 
(Kahnis). While there is much prophecy that still 
awaits fulfilment, we can in faith confidently expect that 
God, in his own time, will give the interpretation. 

2.2. What will be the characteristics of Christ's Second 
Comingf 

(a) It will be visible. The first coining of Christ, by 
which He became incarnate, was invisible. Of the second, 
it is said : 

Matt. 24:30 — "They shall see the Son ot Man coming on the clouds of 
heaven." Acts 1:11 — "This Jesus shall so come again, in like manner as 
ye have seen him going into heaven." 

(b) It will be glorious. The first coming was in hu- 
mility and weakness. The second will be "with power 
and great glory." "If at the Transfiguration, 'his face 
did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as 
the light' (Matt. 17: 2), what will this brightness be at the 
highest grade of the State of Exaltation ? Such will be 
the glory, that no one could endure it, unless divinely sus- 
tained" (Gerhard). In His divinely-human person, He 
will be made manifest as "King of kings and Lord of 
lords" (Rev. 19:16). The "throne of his glory"' has 
been defined as "the manifestation of the hitherto invisible 
Right Hand of God." 

(c) It will be public. Unlike the vision on the road to 
Damascus, unlike the glorious appearance at the Trans- 



Chap. XXXVIII. ] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 517 

figuration, unlike even the Ascension, which was wit- 
nessed by only a few, "all the tribes of the earth" shall see 
Him coming (Matt. 24:30). 

(d) It will be local. In this it corresponds to the As- 
cension (Chapter XII, 60). 

(e) It will be sudden and unexpected. Even though 
preceded by signs, none of them will be so clearly inter- 
preted or interpretable as to prevent it from being a sur- 
prise even to those earnestly expecting it. The hour 
comes with the silent approach of a thief (Matt. 24:43), 
and at last bursts upon the world with the suddenness of 
lightning (Matt. 24:27). 

v. 42 — "Watch, therefore, tor ye know not on what day your Lord 
cometh." 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 

1. What will follow the Second Coming of Christ? 

Matt. 25:31, 32 — "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all 
the angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory, and be- 
fore him shall be gathered all the nations, and he shall separate them one 
from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats." 

Hence the Church confesses : 

"From thence, he shall come to judge the quick and 
the dead" (Apostles' Creed). 

"And he shall come again with glory to judge both the 
quick and the dead" (Nicene Creed). 

"At whose coming all men shall rise again with their 
bodies, and shall give account for their own works" 
(Athanasian Creed). 

"At the consummation of the world, Christ shall appear 
for judgment" (Augsburg Confession). 

2. Is judgment to be ascribed exclusively to the Son? 
As we have previously learned (Chapter III, 63), in all 

external acts, there is a concurrence of all persons of the 
Trinity. Beside this, in some passages judgment is 



5l8 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

ascribed simply to God (Heb. 12:23; Rom. 2:5; Deut. 
32:36; Ps. 98:9) ; in others to the Father (John 8:50; 
Acts 17: 31 ; 1 Peter 2: 23) ; and in still others, as John 
16:8, to the Holy Spirit. 

3. But does not Christ say that "the Father jndgeth 
no man" {John 5: 22)? 

This means that the Father does not judge alone or 
apart from the Son, but only in and through the Son ; just 
as he loves the world and redeems it and offers it salva- 
tion only in and through Christ. The Father has given to 
the Son the prerogative of exercising judgment visibly. 

John 5:22 — "For neither doth the Father judge any man, but he hath 
given all judgment unto the Son; that all may honor the Son even as they 
honor the Father." 

4. Is it not said also that it is not the office of Christ 
to judge? 

Yes. 

John 12:47 — "■! came not to judge the world, but to save the world." 

The meaning is not to deny that He exercised judg- 
ment even during the State of Humiliation ; but* as the 
next verse ("He that rejecteth me hath one that judgeth 
him ; the word that I spake the same shall judge him in 
the last day") and John 3: 18, show, that the. guilty can 
blame no one but themselves for their condemnation. The 
great end of Christ's incarnation and mediatorial work, 
which includes His return to judge the world, is the sal- 
vation of men. The Plan of Redemption comprises with- 
in its compass even those who will be finally lost (Chapter 
IX, 16-19). But while God wills the salvation of all. He 
does not will that they be saved outside of the order which 
He has provided. 

John 3:19 — "This is the judgment that light is come into the world, and 
men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil." 

The office of Judge, therefore, so far as the wicked are 
concerned is only incidental to the chief object of the 
Mediatorial office; just as the punishment of criminals is 
only a secondary end of the office of a magistrate, and the 



Chap. XXXVIII.] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 519 

punishment and expulsion of unruly scholars not the main 
duty of a schoolmaster. 

"Christ's office is not directed chiefly to judging, hut to 
helping. This is Christ's principal office, for which He 
was sent into the world. But when one will not accept 
His aid, and entrust himself to Him, who wants to help 
him, what else can occur than that he who will not have 
life, should have death ? He says : '\\ noever will not fol- 
low me, must feel that he remains a sinner' : and then 
strict judgment is passed on him. so that he remains in 
his sins, since he will not have righteousness. He who 
will not have help and blessing, must have the curse. He 
who will not accept health, must remain sick. He who 
declines to go to heaven, must go to hell. For while it is 
not Christ's office to cast into hell, and to curse or to 
judge, but He wants to help and to rescue : nevertheless, 
it is also true, that he who will not accept such help, must 
remain in his sins. ... A physician says to a sick man : 
'I want you to get well. I cannot save your life : but I want 
to help to do it.' But if the sufferer will not allow this, 
or accept his services as doctor, the latter says : 'Now I 
will not talk to you as your doctor, but, because you com- 
pel me. I must be your judge, and say : You are going to 
die.' (Luther, Erl. ed., 48:294 sq.). 

5. Are Love and Justice mutually exclusive? 

The love of God for those whom through Christ He 
saves is one of the grounds for the exercise of His justice. 
A difference must be made between those who are within 
the Order which He has provided, and those who, by the 
persistent opposition of their will to that of God, are out- 
side of it. Hence Christ says : 

John 9:39 — "For judgment came 1 into this world." 

It is only through this final intervention of Christ as 
Judge, that complete deliverance for His people comes. 

2 Thess. 1:7. 8 — "To you that are afflicted, rest with us, at the revelation 
of the Lord Jesus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming 
fire rendering vengeance to them that know not God." 



520 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

6. According to what nature will Christ be our judge? 
According to both natures (Chapter XI, 16, 31, 50). 

Holy Scripture is very explicit in its statements that judg- 
ment will be exercised in and through the assumed human 
nature. The Judge is repeatedly called "the Son of Man'* 
(Matt. 16:27; 19:28; 24:30), "Jesus Christ" (Rom. 
2:16). (Chapter XI, 2.) 

Acts 17:31 — "He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom 
he hath ordained." John 5:27 — "He gave him authority to execute judg- 
ment because he is a Son ot Man." (Ct. Chapter XXXVI, 8.) 

The accounts of the judgment, as e. g., that of Matt. 
24, declare that He will be visible to all in His human 
form, as He appears to judge the world (Chapter 
XXXVII, 22 a). 

Concerning this Augustine has said that, since the sight 
of God belongs only to "the pure in heart" (Matt. 5:8), 
and "seeing face to face" is promised only to the believ- 
ing (1 Cor. 13: 12), it will be only through the human 
nature that He will be universally visible at the Day of 
Judgment, i. e., that it will be the glorified form of a ser- 
vant" that will then be made manifest ("On the Trinity," 
Migne ed., VIII, 840 sq.). 

Christ will sit in judgment according to that nature, 
according to which He stood in judgment before man's 
tribunal. He will be judge in the nature in which He 
was judged. 

7. Are not the faithful followers of Christ also to be 
judges? 

1 Cor. 6:2 — "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" v. 3 — 
"Know ye not that we shall judge angels?" Matt. 19:28 — "When the Son 
of Man shall sit upon the throne ot his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 

We cannot infer from these passages that it will be the 
office of the saints to give sentence, but the meaning prob- 
ably is that they will be assigned places of high dignity, 
as those who, according to Rev. 3:21, are to share the 
throne of Christ and will approve each sentence. Never- 



Chap. XXXVIII.] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 521 

theless the judgment of the world by Apostles and other 
believers is not restricted to the Last Day. As it is the 
spoken word of Christ that is to be the means of judging 
(John 12:48), they who become the organs through 
which this word is published, judge the world not only by 
their preaching, but by the testimony of the "living 
epistles known and read of men," given in their lives. It 
is in connection with the preaching of the Seventy, that 
Christ says that He beheld Satan fall as lightning. It 
was by the holy life of John the Baptist, as well as by his 
words, that Herod felt himself condemned (Mark 6: 20). 
So the act of faith, on the part of Noah, in building the 
ark, "condemned the world" (Heb. 11:7). All this we 
may regard as anticipatory of the Judgment Day, when 
it is the Gospel as proclaimed by the Apostles that is the 
standard of the judgment. 

Rom. 2:16 — "The day when God shall judge the secrets ot men, accord- 
ing to my gospel, by Jesus Christ." 

8. What will be the office of angels at the judgment? 

(a) As at the nativity, temptation, passion, resurrec- 
tion and ascension, they attended Christ, so also will they 
be with Him as He returns to judge the world (Matt. 
25:31; 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Thess. 1:7; Jude 14). 

(b) They will assemble those who are to* be judged 
(Matt. 24:31). 

(c) They will separate the two classes (Matt. 13:49). 

(d) They will execute the sentence of the Judge, both 
by committing the wicked to their eternal prison (Matt. 
13:41, 42), and conducting those whom the Judge will 
approve to eternal bliss (1 Thess. 4: 17). 

9. Who are to be judged? 
All men. 

2 Cor. 5:10 — "For we must all be made manifest before the judgment- 
seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, ac- 
cording to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 

Rom. 14:10 — "For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat ot God." 

The righteous (1 Cor. 4 : 4, 5 ; 2 Tim. 4 : 8, etc.). 



522 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

The ungodly (Rom. 2:5; Jude 15 ; Matt. 11 : 22, etc.). 

They are sometimes classified, as in the Apostles' Creed, 
as "the quick and the dead" (Acts 10:42; 2 Tim. 4:1; 
I Peter 4:5). At any time one may take his stand on 
earth, and to him the sum of all men will be those then 
living, and those who have died. At the Last Day, it will 
be those to whom the return of Christ anticipates death, 
together with those then in their graves. The expression 
does not mean that those who have preceded us have been 
judged or will be judged since their death. It looks for- 
ward to the resurrection day with the bringing of all at 
that time before the judgment seat of Christ. 

10. But will the righteous both judge (7) and be 
judged ? 

So it is declared. As their resurrection will precede 
that of the ungodly (1 Thess. 4: 16), so we may infer the 
same of their public recognition as those who, for Christ's 
sake, are justified, and, therefore, to be raised to the posi- 
tion of partakers in Christ's Judgment of the world, as 
they had been in His sufferings and resurrection. 

11. What will be judged ? 

Not only all men, but all that they have been and are. 
A merely human judge must regard particular deeds, and 
determine as to how they correspond with the letter of 
the statutes which he is sworn to administer. But the 
Judge at the Last Day is one, who, "with eyes as a flame 
of fire" (Rev. 1 : 14), "searches the reins and the heart" 
(Rev. 2: 23). "All things are naked and laid open before 
the eyes to him, with whom we have to do" (Heb. 4: 14). 
There is no need, therefore, for Him to balance individual 
virtues with individual sins. His gaze penetrates the in- 
nermost personality of every individual. Each one is 
judged by that which determines and controls his whole 
life. "To every individual, the first and last question of 
the Eternal Judge will be as to whether he have received 



Chap. XXXVIIL] the general judgment. 523 

or rejected the grace of God in Christ, whether he believe 
or not in the Son of God" (Kliefoth). 

John 5:24 — "He that beheveth him that sent me, hath eternal lite, and 
cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out ot death into Hie." 

John 3:18 — "He that believeth on him, is not judged; he that beheveth 
not, hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name 
of the only-begotten Son of God." 

. There is not a wicked deed that does not have its root 
and source in unbelief; there is not a good deed that is 
not the fruit of faith. The crucial question, therefore, 
will be that of faith or unbelief. 

"That 1 may be found in him, not having a righteousness ot mine own, 
even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith- in Christ, 
the righteousness which is from God by faith" (Phil. 3:9). 

12. Are we, then, to infer that in the Final Judgment, 
no account is to be taken of works? 

Undoubtedly men will be judged according to their 
works, as these are the fruits and testimonies of faith or of 
unbelief (Chapter XXIII, 37-40). The words "accord- 
ing to their works'' constitute a formula that is often re- 
peated in Holy Scripture, and must be carefully distin- 
guished from that by which it has often been misinter- 
preted, viz., "on account of their works." The wicked 
indeed, will be judged "on account of their works," and 
"on account of their unbelief" as well as "according to 
their works" ; but the righteous, not "on account of," but 
"according to their works." Non propter, sed secundum 
opera. 

I Ps. 62:12 — "Thou renderest to every man according to his work." Prov. 
24:12 — "Shall not he render to every man according to his work?" Jer. 
25:14 — "I will recompense them according to their deeds." 32:19 — "To 
give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit ot his 
doing." Matt. 16:27 — "Then shall he render to every man according to his 
deeds." Rom. 2:6 — "Who will render to every man according to his works." 

1 Gdr. 3:8 — "Each shall receive his own reward according to his own labor." 

2 Cor. 5:10 — "W T e must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat ot 
Christ; that each one may receive the things done in the body, according 
to that; he hath done, whether it be good or bad." 1 Pet: 1:17 — "Who, 
without respect of persons, judgeth according to each man's work." Rev. 
22:12 — "My reward is with me to render to each man, according as his 
wotfk is?" - 

13. Will account be taken only of works in general? 



524 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

No ; but in all their details. Especial prominence will 
be given the inquiry as to how faith shall have expressed 
itself in deeds of merciful love. Beneath external com- 
pliance with the demands of morality, the external mani- 
festation of the Spirit of Christ will be read in the record 
of activity for the relief of suffering humanity, in liber- 
ality towards the poor, in forgiveness of enemies and 
meekness under false charges and undeserved punish- 
ments, in scrupulous avoidance of all causes of offence, in 
sympathy towards all representatives of Christ, in efforts 
for advancing the Kingdom of God (Matt. 25:35-40; 
Luke 6 : 35 ; Luke 14 : 13 sq. ; Mark 9 : 42 ; 1 Thess. 4:6; 
1 Cor. 3:8). The words of our mouths and the secret 
thoughts and purposes of the heart, good and evil, will 
appear in judgment (Matt. 12 : 36 sq. ; Rom. 2 : 16 ; 1 Cor. 
4:5; Matt. 6:4, 6; Eph. 5 : 11-13 ; 1 Tim. 5 : 24, 25). 

14. Does this necessarily mean that every sin of the 
righteous will be examined and published on the Day of 
Judgment? 

The majority of our Lutheran theologians say that it 
does not. The reasons for this opinion are enumerated 
as follows by Gerhard : 

"1. From the description of the judicial process in 
Matt. 25. For in it the godly, who are placed at the right 
hand of Christ as Judge, hear not the publication of their 
sins, but the enumeration of their good works. 2. From 
the gratuitous promise and mercy of God. For He de- 
clares that He does not remember our sins" (Is. 43:25; 
Jer. 31:34; Ez. 18:22), that He "casts our sins behind 
our backs" (Is. 38: 17) ; that He "casts our sins into the 
depths of the sea" (Micah 7: 19) ; that He "blots out, as 
a thick cloud, our sins." 3. From the immutability of 
God. What God has forgiven in this life, He will not 
demand an account of in the life to come. 4. From the 
disposition of the Judge towards the godly. He will come 



Chap. XXXVIIL ] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 525 

as Redeemer (Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:23), as Saviour 
(Matt. 25:35; John 14:3), as Advocate (Rom. 8:34; 
1 John 2: 1), as the awarder of the crown (2 Tim. 4:8; 
Rev. 2: 10). 

"He will not, therefore, come as a severe Judge, pro- 
ducing the sins of the godly to the public gaze of all, and 
calling them to a rigid examination. For it is the part of 
an advocate not to publish, but to cover ; not to accuse, 
but to excuse ; not to convict, but to favor. 5. From the 
office of Christ. For as the only Mediator between God 
and man, He took our sins upon Himself, and afforded a 
perfect satisfaction for them, which believers apply to 
themselves by true faith (Is. 53:5; John 1:29; Rom. 
4: 25 ; 2 Cor. 5 : 19, 21 ; 1 Peter 2: 24). But if He were 
to reveal the sins of the godly in judgment, He would act 
contrary to His own office, since He would reveal the 
sins which He suffered to be placed upon Him, in order 
that He might afford a most sufficient ransom whereby 
they might be abolished and removed. 6. From the ex- 
ample of those who have been converted. He has not re- 
proached those for their sins, who in this life have been 
converted to God by true repentance, but, according to his 
promise, has not remembered their sins, and has treated 
such persons as a most indulgent and mild father, who 
receives into his open arms a wayward son who returns, 
without upbraiding him for his former life (Luke 15 : 20). 
7. From the condition of the godly. For they are de- 
scribed as those who are not to be judged (John 3: 17), 
who will not come into judgment (John 5 : 23), for whom 
there is no condemnation (Rom. 8:1) as washed, sancti- 
fied, justified (1 Cor. 6: 11), whom none can accuse or 
condemn (Rom. 8:33), as without spot of wrinkle or 
any such thing (Eph. 5:27). 8. From the norm of the 
judgment." (See below, 16.) 



526 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII 

15. Will the godly recall their sins on the Day of 
Judgment? 

If so, it will not be to their shame and confusion, or 
punishment, but to the praise of the grace of God that has 
forgiven them. 

"The fouler was the error, 

The sadder was the fall, 
The ampler are the praises 

Of Him who pardoned all." 

Luke 7:47 — "To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." 

16. According to what norm or rule will judgment 
be pronounced? 

God's Word (John 12:48). But this Word is either 
Law or Gospel. He who rejects the Gospel will be judged 
according to the Law. He who accepts the Gospel will 
be judged according to the Gospel. 

Rom. 2:12 — "As many as have sinned under the law, shall be judged by 
the law." 

"The sentence of acquittal to be published by the Judge 
with respect to the godly will not be another and a new 
acquittal, but the solemn publication, promulgation and 
confirmation of the absolution proclaimed on earth 
through the ministry of the Gospel, as is inferred from 
the words of Christ, 'He that believeth is not condemned/ 
Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in 
heaven.' The sentence against the godless will not be 
another and a new condemnation, but the solemn attesta- 
tion, publication and ratification of the condemnation an- 
nounced to them on earth through the law. There will 
not, therefore, be a different rule of judgment on the 
Last Day from that which is applied today in the ministry 
of the preached Word" (Gerhard). 

17. But is it not expressly said that the godless also 
will be judged according to the Gospel? 

In 2 Thess. 1:8, it is said that Christ will return to 
render vengeance "to them that obey not the Gospel 
So also : 



iy 



Chap. XXXVIII. ] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 527 

Rom. 2:16 — "In the day when God shad judge the secrets oi men accord- 
ing to my Gospel by Jesus Christ."' 

This means the Law, as illumined and interpreted by 
the Gospel. To the guilt of all other offences, is added 
that of the rejection of Christ and His message of salva- 
tion (see above, n). 

John 16:9 — "He shall convict the world oi sin, because they believe not 
on me." 15:22 — "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not 
had sin; but now have they no cloak for their sin." So Matt. 11:23, 2 4 
declares that it shall be more tolerable tor Tyre and Sidon in the Day ot 
Judgment, than for the cities which rejected the Gospel which Christ had 
proclaimed and attested by miracles in their midst. 

18. In how far arc the details of the examination to 
be -figuratively interpreted? 

Not so as to make of the judgment itself a pictorial 
representation of what occurs within the consciences of 
men, or a declaration of a separation made already in this 
life, but only in so far as the apparatus of human courts 
is employed as figures of matters that are suggested, but 
are not fully explained. Such, for example, is the state- 
ment concerning the opening of the books. 

Rev. 20:12 — "And the books were opened; and another book was opened, 
which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things 
which were written in the books, according to their works." 

19. What is meant by "the Books"? 

The Formula of Concord repeatedly interprets "the 
book of life" as Christ. 

'The Word of God leads us to Christ, who is the Book 
of Life, in whom all are written and elected who are to be 
saved"' (525). "God's Word presents Christ to us as the 
Book of Life" (527). "Christ Jesus, who is the true 
Book of Life" (652). "The entire Holy Trinity, Father, 
Son and Holy Ghost, direct all men to Christ, as to the 
Book of Life" (661). 'They should seek eternal election 
in Christ and His Holy Gospel, as in the Book of Life" 
(665). 

"In the Holy Scriptures, a book is ascribed to God, after 
a human figure, to express His supreme knowledge of all 
things. The figure is taken from earthly rulers who have 



528 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII 

their annals and records of the affairs in their govern- 
ment. In this sense, the book is nothing but the knowl- 
edge of God" (Baldwin, on Phil. 4:3). Gerhard has ap- 
plied this thought in various relations: 'There is 1. The 
Book of Life, in which, by eternal predestination, believ- 
ers are written (Rev. 20: 12). 2. The Book of Divine 
Omniscience containing a record of all that men have done 
on earth (Ps. 56:8; 139: 16; Mai. 3: 16). 3. The Book 
of Holy Scripture" (see above, under 16, 17). "4. The 
Book of Conscience. This will be opened on the Day of 
Judgment ; because all that is hidden and secret in each 
one's conscience will then be made manifest. 5. The Book 
of Human Testimony. For they who are benefited by the 
godly in this life will publicly proclaim their works (Luke 
16:9), while complaint will be made also of the unbelief 
of the godless (Matt. 12:41, 42). 6. The Book of Accu- 
sations by Satan. As he accuses men day and night (Rev. 
12: 10), he will present on the Day of Judgment, an ex- 
tended catalogue of the deeds wrought by the godless at 
his instigation. 7. The Book of Divine Justice. This vol- 
ume is closed during this life, because the godly sometimes 
suffer adversity, while the wicked prosper ; but, on the 
Day of Judgment, it will be opened, when, in the public 
gaze of angels and men, rewards will be alloted the good, 
and punishment, the wicked.'' All this may be briefly 
summarized in the statement that the memory of the Om- 
niscient Judge will not need the process of a protracted 
inquisition, in order to ascertain the facts upon which to 
base his verdict and sentence. 

20. With zvhat two things has the decree of the Judge 
to do? 

First, with the question of the guilt or innocence of 
those brought into judgment ; and secondly, with the as- 
signment of rewards and punishments. 



Chap. XXXVIII. ] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 529 

21. Againsi what must the doctrine of rewards for the 
godly on the Day cf Judgment be carefully guarded? 

It must always be remembered that Justification before 
God, salvation and eternal life are never, properly speak- 
ing, the rewards of the life or the love or the labors of any 
believer, but are bestowed gratuitously solely because of 
the merits of Christ. The rewards assigned the godlv 
presuppose that, without any merit or worthiness of 
theirs, and, indeed, with that in them which, on the con- 
trary, if regarded apart from Christ, merits nothing but 
God's judgment, God, as a gift of pure grace, distributes 
to them various blessings ; and that these blessings are 
proportioned to various degrees of fidelity, and in recog- 
nition of what has been accomplished in and through 
them, by God's own renewing and sanctifying power. 
(See above, under 12 ; also more amply in Chapter XXIII, 
39-44). They are awarded because such is God's order 
and promise. 

22. But is the awarding of these rewards postponed 
until the Day of Judgment? 

Some of these rewards are given, indeed, already in 
this life, as the promise of the Fourth Commandment 
shows. But these are only the pledges or earnests of the 
future reward. Such rewards are not associated in Scrip- 
ture with the state of bliss into which the believer is in- 
troduced at death. It is not until the return of Christ and 
the Day of Judgment, that what is called "the reward" 
of believers is received. 

2 Tim. 4:8 — "The crown, of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous 
judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them 
that loved his appearing." i Pet. 5:4 — "When the Chiei Sn.epherd shall 
be ^manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory that fadeth not away." 
Matt. 25:34 — "Then" (compare verse 31) "shall the King say unto them 
on his right hand, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- 
pared for you from the foundation of the world." r Cor. 4:5— "Judge 
nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light 
the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the 
hearts; and then shall each man have his praise from God." Rev. 22:12 — 



530 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII 

"Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each 
man, according as his work is." 

2$. Will there be differences, then, in the rewards? 

This is taught in numerous places in Holy Scripture ; 
especially in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25 : 21-23), 
and of the Pounds (Luke 19: 16-19). The differences in 
reward bear a certain relation to the degree in which the 
believer has been an organ for the workings of divine' 
grace and the progress of the Kingdom of God. Never- 
theless, while, according to God's order, there is this pro- 
portion, the reward will be far in excess of the labors and 
sufferings which are recognized when they are bestowed 
(Rom. 8: 18; 2 Cor. 4: 17). The pounds well adminis- 
tered on earth are replaced by cities, at Christ's coming 
(Luke 19: 17, 19). 

24. Will any be saved who will be without reward ? 
As before said, salvation itself is the reward of the 

active and passive obedience of Christ ; and the low r est 
place in the world of glory will be one of inexpressible 
bliss. Nevertheless, there will be those, who, although 
resting all their hopes of salvation upon Christ, have 
wasted privileges and opportunities in this life, and have 
in their weakness but not wilfully, failed to fulfil the pos- 
sibilities of their calling as Christians. Either in whole 
or in part, "according to their works," they lose their 
reward. 

1 Cor. 3:13-15 — "The fire itselt shall prove each man's work ot what 
sort it is. If any man's work shall abide which he built thereon, he shall 
receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; 
but he himself shall be saved; yet so as through fire." 

25. Are the works which are judged completed with 
the death of the person judged? 

No. They continue to extend their influence through- 
out all time, as a stone thrown into the water creates suc- 
cessive and ever widening circles, until they reach the 
distant shore. Paul was indeed bound, but the word 
which he had preached was not bound (2 Tim. 2:9). 



Chap. XXXVIII. ] THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 53I 

He was executed as a criminal, but his influence is a 
thousand times more extensive in the Twentieth, than in 
the First Century. Every testimony given, every word 
spoken, every effort made, every sacrifice endured, every 
prayer offered, remains as a factor that contributs to the 
shaping of the world's history, and the progress of the 
Kingdom of God, until the sign of the returning Son of 
Man is seen in the heavens (Heb. 11:4; 12:1; Rev. 
14: 13). While man's labors cease when he enters into 
his rest, his work goes on and is never over until he rises 
from his grave. God's omniscience knows the whole 
record from all eternity ; but it is only at the Judgment 
Day that the man himself is permitted to see it, or his fel- 
low-men are made acquainted with its entire contents. 

26. In what will the sentence of the wicked agree with, 
and in zvhat will it differ from that of the godly? 

As there will be blessedness for all found in Christ, so 
there will be misery for all not so found. But as upon the 
basis of this common blessedness, there will be degrees of 
glory as the reward of varying degrees of fidelity among 
those, all of whom are saved out of pure grace for Christ's 
sake, so, among those whose portion is endless woe, there 
will be degrees of punishment proportioned to various 
degrees of guilt. 

Luke 12:47, 48 — "That servant that knew his lord's will, and made not 
ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but 
he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with 
few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be re- 
quired." 10:14 — "It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day 
of judgment than for you." 

2J. Is it true also of the godless that iheir works are 
not completed with their death? 

Their influence also continues to work until the end of 
time. The measure of their iniquity is not full, when they 
are laid in their graves, but they continue to treasure up 
wrath against the day of wrath (Rom. 2:5). 

1 Tim. 5:24 — "Some men's sins are evident, going before unto judg- 
ment; and some men also they follow after." 



532 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

It is only at the Last Day, that they will learn to know 
the desolation that their words and deeds, as perpetuated 
through succeeding generations, have accomplished, and 
to apprehend the measure of their guilt. 

28. Beside the godly and the godless, do the Scriptures 
permit us to admit the suggestion of any third class? 

Scripture knows of only two classes, and between them, 
it draws a very clear and sharp line, as believers and unbe- 
lievers, those on the right hand and those on the left, 
sheep and goats, blessed and cursed, those who have 
shown their faith by the exercise of merciful love to their 
fellow-men, and those who have been indifferent to all 
their appeals. 

29. What important difference in the qualifications 
attending the sentence? 

Matt. 25:34 — "Inherit the kingdom prepared tor you." 

Matt. 25:41 — "Depart into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and 
his angels." 

In these words, the Judge protests that the condemned 
have only themselves to blame for their sad lot, and that 
they perish not by His will, but by their deliberate choice 
and their obstinate adherence to that choice of the portion 
that was prepared not for them, but for their very great- 
est enemy. 

30. What will immediately follow the execution of 
the sentence? 

The end of the Mediatorial Office of Christ ( 1 Cor. 
15 : 24-28. See Chapter XV. 18; also Lutheran Commen- 
tary, VIII, 129-134). 

31. What then? 

The end of the world. The entire visible creation, like 
man's body in consequence of sin, is hastening towards 
a crisis in which it shall be dissolved. 

Ps. 102:26 — "The heavens shall perish; yea, all of them shall wax old 
like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be 
changed." Matt. 24:35 — "Heaven and earth shall pass away." 1 Cor. 
7:31 — "The fashion of this world passeth away." 



Chap. XXXVIII. 1 THE GENERAL JUDGMENT. 533 

The mode of its destruction, it is distinctly foretold, 
will be by fire. 

2 Pet. 3:7 — "The heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word, 
have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment." 
v. 10 — "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, ana the elements 
shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are 
therein shall be burned up." Is. 34:4 — "And all the host ot heaven shall 
be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all 
their host shall fade away, as the leaf fadeth from off the vine, and as a 
fading leaf from the fig tree." 

32. For what purpose will the world be destroyed? 
That another world may take its place. As man's body 

is resolved into dust, to the end that, at last, a glorified 
resurrection body may come forth, so the world which has 
been the scene, the witness and the victim of man's sin 
(Rom. 8:22), will vanish that another may appear in 
its stead. 

2 Pet. 3:13 — "But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens 
and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Rev. 21:1 — "And 1 saw 
a new heaven and a new earth; tor the first heaven and the first earth are 
passed away; and the sea is no more." Is. 65:17 — "For, behold, i create 
new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be re- 
membered or come to mind." 66:22— "For as the new heavens and the 
new earth, which I will make, snail remain before me, saith the Lord, so 
shall your name and your seed remain." This is termed in Acts 3:21 "the 
restoration of all things." 

33. Will this be accomplished by the complete annihil- 
ation of the present world, and the substitution of a new 
creation, or simply by the purification of this present 
world by Hre and its transformation into "new heavens 
and a nezv earth"? 

Those who teach the absolute annihilation of the world 
regard this as the necessary teaching of such expressions 
in the passages cited under 31, as "perish," "pass away," 
"burned up," "dissolved." But that this does violence to 
their meaning, may be inferred from the fact that 2 Peter 
3 : 6 declares that the antediluvian world "perished" by 
water, although the flood did not affect the substance of 
the world, but only changed its outward form and inhab- 
itants. In describing man's renewal, in 2 Cor. 5: 17, it is 
said : "Old things are passed away ; behold they are be- 



534 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXVIII. 

come new." But it was the arror of Flaeius that main- 
tained that the renewal, as well as regeneration, implied 
a "substantial," instead of an accidental change in man. 
The burning up of the world does not require annihila- 
tion ; since combustion does not annihilate, but only re- 
distributes and rearranges particles of matter. If the 
vapor and gases released by the burning of a pound of 
wood could be collected and be added to the weight of its 
ashes, it would be found that not a grain of it is lost. 
There is, therefore, no scriptural testimony to compel this 
meaning, as most of our old Lutheran dogmaticians 
thought. On the other hand, the analogy of the flood and 
of man's renewal, suggests, although it does not teach in 
so many words, a thorough transformation, a change of 
qualities, instead of a change of substance. Such, too, 
was the opinion of Luther ; "The heavens," he said, "have 
now their working-day clothes on ; but then they will put 
on their Sunday robes." "The sun is nowhere as beauti- 
ful and bright, as when it was created ; on man's account, 
it has become half darkened. But on that day, God will 
cleanse it by fire, so that it will be brighter and clearer 
than it was in the beginning." To the same effect, 
Brentz : "Will heaven and earth pass away that nothing 
of them shall remain ? By no means. They will not pass 
away entirely, but will be changed. They will cast aside 
the garment of corruption, and put on the new garment 
of incorruption ; there will be indeed a change of heaven 
and earth, but not a total abolition." Philip Nicolai : "The 
present world shall burn up and be entirely consumed 
with fire ; nevertheless not materially, by the annihilation 
of its essence, but formally, according to its present fash- 
ion and accidental condition." 

34. How has the other side been stated? 

Gerhard says : ' The opinion concerning the substantial 
destruction of the world we do not maintain as an article 
of faith, absolutely necessary to be known and believed 



Chap. XXXIX.] ETERNAL DEATH. 535 

for salvation, but w.e regard it more in harmony with em- 
phatic statements of Scripture concerning the end of the 
world." He quotes Heerbrand as saying: "Whether the 
world will perish according to accidents and inherent 
properties, or according to substance, is not to be curi- 
ously investigated by the array of human talent, for this 
has been placed in the power and judgment alone of God 
the Father.'' So also Hutter and others. 

35. What, however, is fixed ? 

That there will be a new heaven and a new earth, 
whether this be by transformation or by an absolutely 
new creation ; and that on this new earth, men will dwell 
with bodies restored at the resurrection. Luther says 
that 2 Peter 3 : 13 "sounds as though we shall then live 
upon the earth" (Erlangen ed., 52:270). Glorified bodies 
will be at home on a glorified earth. * 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

ETERNAL DEATH. 

1. What is Eternal Death ? 

It is the final stage of death, which began, at the fall, 
with spiritual death, or the separation of the soul from 
God, advanced into bodily death, or the separation of the 
soul from the body ; and culminates in eternal death, or 
the eternal separation of soul and body from God, with 
all the miseries connected with being beneath His con- 
demnation. (See Chapter VIII, 17.) It is sometimes 
known as "the second death" (Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14; 
21:8), in distinction from bodily or temporal death. 

2. Is it a place or a state to which the godless are to 
be consigned ? 

The literal interpretation of Scripture demands both. 
Neither is there an obvious reason for insisting that the 



*This topic is discussed at much length on Kliefoth's "Christliche Lscha- 
tologie," Leipzig, 1886. 



53^ A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIX. 

scriptural references to a place must be figurative, since 
they are to be consigned thither, not simply in soul, but 
also in body. 

3. What care must be taken in the understanding of 
terms employed? 

"As in Rev. 20 : 14 Death and Hades are said to be cast 
into 'the lake of fire* at the Day of Judgment, we must 
distinguish 'Hades' from 'the lake of fire,' since it could 
not be cast into itself. The former refers to something 
that precedes, the latter to something that follows the 
Judgment. It is described in Rev. 20 : 10 as 'a lake of fire 
and brimstone,' and the place of final punishment for the 
devil, and Antichrist and the false prophet. Here 'the 
destruction' and 'perdition' (Rom. 9:22; Phil. 3:19; 
1 Tim. 6:9; 2 Peter 3:7:1 Thess. 5:3: Heb. 10:39), 
which begin in this life (John 3: 18) and continue after 
death (Luke 16:18), culminate (2 Cor. 5:10)'' 
(Rohnert). 

4. When the place of punishment is described as "a 
lake of fire," is this to be understood literally or fig- 
uratively? 

Here the words of Gerhard are to be commended : 
"Whether the fire be truly corporeal, material and visible, 
or incorporeal, immaterial and invisible, we leave un- 
settled (although we incline to the latter), and we ear- 
nestly prav God not to reveal this to us by knowledge 
gained from experience. It is better for us with all ear- 
nestness to be anxious to escape the infernal fire, than to 
contend with passion and at leisure as to its nature.'' The 
facts that to it will be consigned the fallen angels who are 
pure spirits, and that it will burn without consuming, have 
always been difficulties to those who were disposed to con- 
sider it literal fire. The element in the description to be 
tenaciously held, is that it stands for a dreadful reality, 
and not merely for something entirely subjective. What- 



Chap. XXXIX.] ETERNAL DEATH. 537 

ever it mean, back of it all is the wrath of God, who is "a 
consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29). 

5. Hozv have the punishments been classified? 

Some are negative ; others, positive. The negative con- 
sist in separation from God, and all that this implies. The 
positive, in the internal punishments of grief and anguish ; 
and external, to the bodily and mental tortures inflicted 
from without. 

6. Will there be an end to these punishments? 

Matt. 25:46 — "And these shall go away into eternal punishment; but the 
righteous into eternal life." Rev. 20:10 — "And they shall be tormented 
day and night for ever and ever." John 3:36 — "He that obeyeth not the 
Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." 2 Thess. 
1 :q — "Who shall sufter punishment, even eternal destruction from the face 
of the Lord and from the glory of his might." Dan. 12:2 — "And many 
of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to everlasting 
life and some to shame and everlasting contempt." Mark 9:43 — "It is 
good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having thy two hands, 
to go into hell, into the unquenchable hre." 

These passages are sufficient to dispel all thoughts of 
the annihilation of the wicked, or their ultimate conver- 
sion, or the mitigation or relief of their punishment after 
a long period. 

"What sort of inference would it be,"' asks Augustine 
(De Civitate Dei, XXI, 23), "to regard 'eternal punish- 
ment' as only fire of long duration, and to believe 'eternal 
life' to be without end, when Christ embracing both, has 
said in one and the same sentence : 'These shall go into 
eternal punishment, but the righteous into life eternal/ 
If both are eternal, both must refer either to long duration 
with an end, or to perpetuity without an end. They are 
parallels ; on the one hand, 'eternal punishment,' on the 
other, 'eternal life.' But to say in one and the same sense 
that eternal life will be without end, and eternal death will 
have an end, is extremely absurd. Wherefore seeing that 
the eternal life of the saints shall be without end, so there- 
fore, it is a consequence that likewise without end will be 
eternal punishment." 



538 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XXXIX. 

"Just as the elect will reign in heaven for ever and ever 
(Rev. 22: 5), as holy souls desire that God may be glo- 
rified for ever and ever (1 Tim. 1: 17; Heb. 13:21), as 
Jesus risen from the dead is alive for evermore (Rev. 
1 : 18), as in His glory He shall reign for ever and ever 
(Rev. 11 : 15), as the very life of God is described by say- 
ing that He liveth for ever and ever (Rev. 4:9, 10 ; 5 : 14 ; 
10: 6), so is this same measure applied to the punishment 
of lost souls. . . . Modern scepticism has tampered with 
the word 'eternal,' just as it has emptied 'salvation,' 
'atonement,' 'grace,' of their natural meaning. But 'ever- 
lasting' means nothing more nor less than that which lasts 
for ever. . . . Where that word is applied to our home 
in heaven, the hopes and longings of men gladly do jus- 
tice to the natural force of human language. But it is 
noteworthy that no stronger expressions are applied any- 
where to the Eternal Life of the Blessed in Heaven, with- 
in the New Testament, than are here used to describe the 
endlessness of the pains of hell" (Liddon). 

Such questions are to be decided not by our subjective 
feelings, as we contemplate what is involved in eternal 
punishment, but solely by the revealed Word of God. 

7. But will {here not be, according to this statement, a 
disproportion betzveen sins as committed in a brief period 
of time, and their punishment throughout all eternity? 

(a) But sin is not limited to "a brief space of time.'' 
Eternal sin belongs to the future ; and eternal sin and 
eternal death go together. 

(b) Augustine in his "De Civitate Dei" (XXI, 11), 
asks, What Code of Laws has ever proposed to punish of- 
fences by penalties of the same length of time as the act 
which is to be judged? "Is one condemned to lie in prison 
no longer than he was in doing his villiany? A servant 
who has but violently touched his master is awarded many 
years imprisonment." A deed committed in a moment is 



Chap. XXXIX.] ETERNAL DEATH. 539 

often followed by a penalty for life. Such is the principle 
upon which even earthly justice acts. Esau's sale of his 
birthright was the thought and work of a moment. Its 
consequences affected both him throughout life and his 
posterity for many centuries. So with Adam's sin. 

(c) Beside this, we estimate the degree of guilt of an 
offence not by the time needed for its commission, but by 
the character and relation of the one against whom it is 
committed. A wrong to a man is more serious than a 
wrong to a beast ; a wrong to a benefactor is a greater 
crime, than one to other men ; parricide or matricide is 
more heinous than other forms of murder ; but the great- 
est of all sins is that which is against God, the Highest 
Good. 

(d) Still further, the degree of man's guilt may be esti- 
mated in that it required a sacrifice of no less importance 
than the Son of God Himself in order to deliver those who 
are saved from its consequences. On the contrary, the 
greatness of the punishment is intended to help us to esti- 
mate the greatness of the guilt of sin. It is just in propor- 
tion as the significance of sin is minimized, that a worldly 
age protests aganst the teaching of eternal punishment. 
The love of God is never to be so preached, that His 
justice is forgotten ; since it is through His justice, that 
His love is magnified. 

8. But must not allozvance be made for the qualitative 
use of the word "eternal"? 

By this is meant, as we understand, the interpretation 
of the word in passages which declare that believers "have 
eternal life" already in this world, as in I John 5:13: 

"These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have 
eternal life." 

Upon the basis of this, it is argued that as believers have 
eternal life here, so the godless have eternal death in this 
world, and, therefore, that it is not to be apprehended in 
the world to come. But the reasoning is unfair. The be- 



54-0 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL. 

lieving children of God have, indeed, eternal life in this 
world, yet, only as the feeblest beginning, the pledge, the 
earnest of that which is yet to come. If the passage had 
read : "I have written unto you that ye may know that ye 
have all of your eternal life already," there might be some 
place for the suggestion that the punishment of the wicked 
may be no more than their bondage to sin in this world. 
But such is not the declaration ; and beyond the text itself, 
Scripture is full of promises that what will be revealed to 
us at Christ's return, and the blessings then to be re- 
ceived far surpass our thought on this side of the grave. 

9. What qualification, however, should always attend 
the preaching of this doctrine? 

That not all the punishments threatened can be re- 
garded as necessarily pertaining to all the condemned. 
There are degrees of punishment, proportioned to degrees 
of light and knowledge. Every one will be judged "ac- 
cording to his works"; and, as we have learned (Chapter 
XXXVIII, 26), these works will be estimated according 
to the degrees of light and knowledge. 

"Nevertheless, we should note in regard to this diver- 
sity of punishments: 1. That all the punishments of all 
the condemned will be eternal ; and hence, there will be 
no diversity with respect to duration. 2. That there will 
be no diversity with respect to different places, as some 
wish, but that this inequality has reference entirely to dis- 
tinct degrees" (Gerhard). 



CHAPTER XL. 

ETERNAL LIFE. 

I. What is Eternal Life? 

As Eternal Death has been shown to be the culmination 
of the spiritual death, which began with the fall, so Eter- 
nal Life is the culmination of the spiritual life, imparted 
in regeneration, developed in renovation, advanced to a 



Chap. XL.] ETERNAL LIFE. 54 1 

higher stage after the death of the body, but not reaching 
its fulness until the resurrection and the final judgment. 
Hence it is sometimes called simply "life," as in Matt. 
18:8; 7 : 14, and "the life which is life indeed" (i Tim. 
6: 19). As natural life is "the state of an animal or plant, 
in which its organs are in actual performance of their 
functions, or are capable of performing their functions" 
(Century Dictionary), so Eternal Life brings with it the 
realization of the ideal in God's mind in man's creation 
and redemption, and the highest exercise of all the func- 
tions with which man was naturally endowed and with 
which grace has enriched him, to the glory of his Creator 
and Redeemer. 

2. What three things are included in the conception? 
(1) Man's complete deliverance from sin and all its 

consequences. (2) The bringing to perfection of the 
work of grace begun in this life. (3) the attainment of 
all the divine purposes in man's creation. 

3. Explain the first? 

Not only will the godly be beyond the power to sin 
(Matt. 22 : 30), for they will have reached this stage im- 
mediately after death, but, with the resurrection and 
judgment, they will reach a state, in which none of the 
consequences of sin can hereafter affect them. "Blessed" 
as they will be prior to the resurrection, the state of bodi- 
less existence, is unnatural and abnormal, and a conse- 
quence of sin, which prevents their full enjoyment of 
what has been provided in Christ's redemption. But the 
restored body will also be entirely free from all the conse- 
quences of sin that enfeebled it and made it capable of 
suffering. There will be a bodily life, without tears and 
pain, poverty and want, hunger and thirst, cold and heat, 
night and darkness ; all imperfections and limitations that 
come from sin will have ended. 

Rev. 21:4 — "And he shall wipe away every tear irom their eyes: and 
death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain 



542 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL. 

any more; tor the former things have passed away." 7:16 — "They shall 
hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon 
them, nor any heat." 22:5 — "And there shall be night no more: and they 
need no light of lamp, neither light of sun." 1 Cor. 13:12 — "For now we 
see in a mirror darkly; but then face to tace: now 1 know in part; but then 
shall I know fully, even as also i was tully known." 

Further, they will be completely separated from all 
persons defiled by sin, who have not been made subjects 
of regeneration. 

Rev. 22:15 — "Without are the dogs and the sorcerers and the fornica- 
tors and the murderers and the idolaters Lnd every one that loveth and 
that maketh a lie." 1 Cor. 6:9; Gal. 5:19-21. 

The sight and conversation between the godly and the 
godless narrated in Luke 16 belongs to the period before 
the resurrection. • 

The world also, as we learned above in Chapter 
XXXVIII, 32-35, will bear traces no longer of the reign 
of sin. 

4. Explain the second. 

It is the uniform testimony of Holy Scripture, that the 
gifts of grace received in this life, are only "first-fruits, " 
that pledge the full harvest that is to come at Christ's 
return. 

Rom. 8:23 — "Ourselves also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even 
we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting tor our adoption, to wit, the 
redemption of the body." Eph. 1:13, 14— "Ye were sealed with the Holy 
Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, until the re- 
demption of God's own possession." 1 John 3:2 — "Beloved, now are we 
children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We 
know that if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him." 

God's Predestination, that His elect shall "be con- 
formed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8: 29), will then 
reach its goal. This pertains, first of all, to the perfection 
of spiritual endowments (Gal. 5:22, 23), the manifold 
forms of the love, that abides for ever ( 1 Cor. 13 : 8, 13) ; 
and also to the superior endowments of the resurrection 
bodies of believers (Phil. 3:21). 

5. Explain the third. 

Man was created, in order by the use of his free will 
to develop capacities with which he was endowed. As 



Chap. XL.] eternal life. 543 

he came from the hand of God, his perfections were like 
those of the acorn, not like those of the oak. It was with- 
in his choice to advance from a state of possibility to one 
of impossibility of sinning; from one of possibility to one 
of impossibility of dying. As his liberty, so also his 
knowledge and holiness were to be developed. Although 
in the image of God, his chief significance lay in the pos- 
sibilities before him, thoughout all eternity, in his free 
choice to abide in the path in which God had placed him. 
(See Chapter VII, 28, 32.) 

Redemption restores to man not only what he had lost 
in Adam, but brings the full realization of all the possi- 
bilities before Adam in case he had remained faithful. If 
this were not the case, the blot and blight of sin would still 
remain ; and Satan would actually prevent the destiny of 
humanity from being attained by any of our race. Para- 
dise Regained must be more than Paradise Lost, or it 
could not be said : "Where sin abounded, there did grace 
abound more exceedingly." This has been traced already 
in regard to the obedience of Christ, in that He not only 
paid the penalty of sin by His sufferings, but also, by His 
perfect obedience to the Law, earned for man infinite 
merit, such as Adam never had or could have had in 
Eden (Chapter XIV, 21-23) ; and in regard to justifica- 
tion which is not only the non-imputation of sin, but the 
imputation of what Adam never had, viz., the righteous- 
ness of Christ (Chapter XVIII, 3, 4, 6, 9). So in the Life 
Eternal, Renovation will also reach, and even more than 
reach the standard that was attainable by Adam's best use 
throughout eternity of his concreated knowledge and holi- 
ness, as well as of all his physical endowments. 

6. What distinction has been made by some of our 
theologians? 

Between salvation and glory. It is based upon : 

2 Tim. 2:10 — "That the elect may obtain the salvation which is in Christ 
Jesus with eternal glory." 



544 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL. 

"Salvation'* designates the relation of the individual 
who is in Christ to God, and the consequences resulting 
from this relation to the personal life. It is the life-com- 
munion of the individual with God. i. e., the complete 
realization of all that we attempt to express by the word 
"religion." "Glory" stands for what belongs to the saved 
in common ; since they are regarded as not isolated, but 
as constituting a community or society of glorified hu- 
manity, "the general assembly and Church of the first- 
born who are enrolled in heaven" (Heb. 12:23), "the 
people of God" (Rev. 21:3), "a kingdom" (1 Thess. 
2: 12 ; 2 Thess. 1:552 Tim. 4: 18; 2 Peter 1 : 11, etc.), 
and as such each one is alloted his appropriate place, with 
ranks and degrees varying, as in every organized State. 

7. What relation do these two conditions have to each 
other? 

Salvation is the condition of glory. Glory always pre- 
supposes salvation. 

8. Bat is salvation peculiar to the period after the 
General Judgment? 

No. But it is then that salvation reaches its highest 
stage. It is, then, also that although long hidden, it is 
made manifest, and seen to be absolutely beyond the dan- 
ger of any change. Most of all, it is then that the body 
at last shares in the blessedness and the activity, into 
which the soul had previously entered. 

9. What is a most prominent element of the blessed- 
ness of Heaven? 

The Beatific Vision of God. 

Matt. 5:8 — "Blessed are the pure in heart; tor they shall see Goa." i 
Cor. 13:13 — "For now we see in a mirror darkly, but then iace to tace." 
1 John 3:2 — "For we shall see him even as he is." John 17:24 — "1'ather, 
I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where 1 am, 
that they may behold my glory." Rev. 22:4 — "And they shall see his face." 
Ps. 17:15 — "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness; I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with beholding thy form." Matt. :8:io — "In heaven, 
their angels do always behold the iace of my tather who isin heaven."* , 



Chap. XL.] ETERNAL LIFE. 545 

10. What docs this mean? 

With much that we cannot comprehend, it tells clearly 
of a higher and deeper knowledge of God than is possible 
in this life (John 17 : 3 ; 1 Cor. 13:12). It will be an im- 
mediate knowledge, as contrasted with that of this world, 
which is imparted through the Means of Grace. It will 
be a direct knowledge, as contrasted with that acquired 
here by means of reflection and processes of reasoning. 
It will be relatively complete, and, while of course not ex- 
hausting the mysteries of God's being, will be elevated 
above the very fragmentary knowledge we have in this 
world. 2 Cor. 5 : 7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." 

We would miss the meaning, if we regarded only the 
intellectual side of the vision. It refers especially to that 
close intimacy that can be enjoyed only "face to face." 
Paul repeatedly expresses his great desire to be face to 
face with the people, beloved in Christ, to whom he writes 
(Rom. 1:11; 2 Thess. 2:17; 3:10). The joy of the 
•child to look into its father's eyes, the delight of the 
mother to gaze upon the features of her returning child, 
are feeble figures of what is meant by this vision of God. 
It is living within the light of His countenance (Num, 
6: 25 ; Ps. 67: 1). 

11. But docs this mean that with their bodily eyes the 
godly shall behold God? 

Why should it be impossible for the eyes of a glorified 
body to see God? The spiritual body will be adapted to 
whatever new offices God may have for it to discharge 
(Chapter XXXVI, 17). It is not right to understand 
1 Tim. 6 : 16 as teaching the impossibility of such a sight 
of God, as it refers only to present conditions. But 
Augustine correctly says : "I say they shall in the body 
see God : but whether they shall see Him by means of the 
body, as we now see the sun, moon, stars, sea, earth, and 
all that is in it, that is a difficult question" (De Civitate 
Dei, XXII, 29). 



546 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL. 

It is enough, however, to know that Christ, who is 
"the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:17), and who 
is, thus, God Himself, will be clearly visible in His glori- 
fied human nature. 

Rev. 21:23 — "And the city hath no need ot the sun, neither of the moon 
to shine upon it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the 
light thereof." 

12. What will be the effect of this sight of God? 

To transform those admitted to it, still more completely 
into God's image. 

1 John 2>'- 2 — "We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." 

It will be as when Moses beheld the glory of God. His 
face became so radiant with its reflection, that, as he went 
forth to converse with his people he had to be veiled, lest 
its brilliancy should overpower them (Ex. 34:29-35; 
2 Cor. 3:7, 13). If the Apostle could say (2 Cor. 5 : 18), 
"We all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the 
glory of the Lord, are transformed into the siame image, 
from glory to glory," what will it be when we no longer 
see "as in a mirror," but "face to face," and that too, no 
longer merely "the glory of the Lord," but the Lord 
Himself? 

13. What will accompany the sight of God? 

The fruition of God, i. e., the admiring contemplation 
of all God's attributes and deeds in Providence and in 
Grace ; and with this, the joyful appropriation of it all as 
the personal possession of every man, to whom God has 
given Himself as his Lord and God. Only then will God's 
love be fully realized and experienced. It is a great thing,. 
we are told, that by grace we are able to love God here, 
without seeing Him. 

1 Pet. 1:8 — "Whom, having not seen, ye love; on whom, though now ye 
see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice." 

But this has as its goal, the beatific sight of Christ, 
"that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, 
and I in them" (John 17:24), where we shall not only 
know as' we are known, but love as we are loved, and 



Chap. XL.] eternal life. 547 

"God will be all in all" (i Cor. 15:28). The Revelation 
of John seems to exhaust the imagery of earth, in its 
employment of all that can charm the eye or impress the 
imagination, in order to convey some faint idea of what 
this means. If the eye lingered with inexpressible admir- 
ation upon the earthly Temple, as the highest achievement 
then attained of man's art. in the New Jerusalem the gaze 
is transferred from the Temple to its Lord and God. ' 

Rev. 21:22 — "And 1 saw no temple therein; for the Lord God the Al- 
mighty and the Lamb are the temple thereof." 

14. Is the communion of the blessed with God one that 
isolates them from one another? 

In the state between death and the resurrection the 
blessed are referred to generally as mere individuals ; but 
after the Judgment, while the individual is not entirely 
absorbed by the community, the fact that the saved consti- 
tute a society is particularly prominent. They are "a 
people"* (Rev. 19 : 4 ; 21 : 3 ; cf. Rom. 9 : 25 ; 2 Cor. 6 : 16 ; 
Heb. 4:9:1 Peter 2: 9, 10) ; "a general assembly" (Heb. 
12:23); "an assembly*' or "church" (Eph. 5:27); "a 
kingdom" (Rev. 1:6, "And he made us to be a king- 
dom"), or the common heirs of a kingdom (Matt. 
25 : 34), to judge and to reign (Rev. 22 : 5). Heaven will 
be no place of monastic seclusion, but a city (Heb. 11 : 10, 
16 : 12 : 22 ; 13:14: Rev. 3 : 12 ; 21:2), planned and or- 
ganized beyond the highest ideals of man's art. Beside 
communion with God, there will be close association with 
the godly of all ages and the holy angels. 

Heb. 12:22 — "But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city or 
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, 
and to the general assembly -and church of the first-born who are enrolled 
in heaven." Matt. 8:11 — "Many shall come from the east and the west, 
and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom ot 
heaven." John 14:3 — "In my Father's house, are many mansions." Rev. 



*Laos, viz, those inwardly united by the bond of common ancestry and a 
common nature and common interests, not ethnos, referring to external re- 
lations, or ochlos a mere aggregate of atoms constituting an unorganized 
crowd. 



548 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL. 

20:11-27 — The description of the New Jerusalem, v. 24 — "And the nations 
shall walk amidst the light thereof; and the kings of the earth bring their 
glory into it." 

15. In what form is this social life of the blessed de- 
scribed as especially expressing itself? 

In their united worship (Rev. 4:8; 5:9, 10 ; 7 : 4-1 1 ) ; 
and joyful service (Rev. 22:3). The details of this ser- 
vice are are not revealed. Gerhard (IX, 379), upon the 
basis of Matt. 17:3, says: "As Moses and Elias at the 
Transfiguration conversed with Christ concerning His 
impending suffering, so, in life eternal, there will be per- 
petual and most joyful conversations concerning the fruit 
of the Lord's suffering." Scripture abounds in similar 
suggestions, doubtless intended to excite our inquiry, and 
to stimulate to speculations concerning what may be, al- 
though, in order to exercise our faith, deferring precise 
information until the reality of the eternal world, in all 
its fulness, becomes ours. 1 Thess. 2 : 19 gives us ground 
for believing that the faithful will find part of their eternal 
bliss in the fruits of their faith as seen in the godly men 
and women, they will there meet, who, through their in- 
strumentality have been brought to Christ, or been efjfi- 
cient in advancing the Kingdom of God on earth. 

16. Will all have the same glory ? 

Each individual will have the same salvation, which, 
like justification, will be equal. But the glory will vary 
with individuals. It belongs to the entire community of 
the saved ; but as in all societies, some are higher, and 
others lower. "Omnibus una salus Sanctis, sed gloria dis- 
par" (Gerhard). 

Dan. 12:3 — "They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firm- 
ament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars tor ever and 
ever." i Cor. 15:41, 42 — "One star differeth from another star in glory; 
so also is the resurrection of the dead." Matt. 19:28 — "Verily I say unto 
you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration, where the Son 
of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Matt. 5:19 — "Least in the 
kingdom of heaven;" "great in the kingdom of heaven.' (See also Chapter 
XXXVII,' 23.) 



Chap. XL.] ETERNAL LIFE. 549 

Here the "Communion of Saints" will be realized in its 
fullest extent. While there will be differences, there will 
be no envy. 

"Qui Scientem cuncta sciunt, quid nescire nequeunt? 
Nam et pectoris arcana penetrent alterutrum, 
Unum volunt, unum nolunt, unitas est mentium. 
Licet cuiquam sit diversum pro labore praemium, 
Caritas hoc facit suum quod amat in altero. 
Proprium sic singulorum fit commune omnium." 

(Peter Uamianus.)* 

17. What will be the home of the Blsssed after the 
Final Judgment? 

The "New Heavens and New Earth" (2 Peter 3: 13; 
Rev. 21 :i ; Is. 65 117 ; 66 :22 ; see Chapter XXXVIII, 35) ; 
particularly "the new earth" (Matt. 5:5), into which 
John saw the New Jerusalem descending, from above, 
where the saints had dwelt as pure spirits (Rev. 21:2). 
The new home will be one in which the glorified will dwell 
in the bodies restored to them at the resurrection. The 
new earth and the new body will be fitted for the new ex- 
istence into which they will then enter. If physical sci- 
ence is constantly making new discoveries concerning the 
properties of matter, showing how little it had previously 
known concerning them, it certainly is incompetent to 
determine anything concerning the new properties that 
will then be added. Although Scripture is often forced, 
from the poverty of human language, to resort to figura- 
tive terms to communicate its truths, not everything is 



*To avoid misunderstanding we have changed "meritum" at close of 
line 4 to "praemium." (See above Chapter XXlll:4i, 42.) 

This passage from the great hymn: "Ad perennis vitae fontem," we 
have roughly paraphrased: 

"Knowing Him who all things knoweth, what from them can be with- 
held? 

Brother lives within his brother, none have secrets to conceal; 

Heart and mind and will and purpose, one throughout and one within.. 

What though diverse are their honors, as their labors were on earth? 

Each his own esteems the glory which he sees his brother wear; 

Every individual token, common gift and joy for all." 



550 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XL. 

figurative, but beneath the words there are the most real 
of all realities, which no reasoning can explain away. 

18. What argument concerning the nature of this 
abode has been made from the blessings of the pres- 
ent life? 

In one of the most eloquent passages in Christian liter- 
ature, Augustine recounts at length the blessings that be- 
long to this life, notwithstanding the fact that it is under 
a curse, and, then, reasoning from the less to the greater, 
asks what must be the rewards in the abode of the 
blessed ! We quote a brief extract : 

''Shall I speak of the manifold and various loveliness of 
sky and earth and sea ; of the plentiful supply and wonder- 
ful quality of the light ; of sun, moon and stars ; of the 
shade of trees ; of the colors and perfume of flowers ; of 
the multitude of birds, all differing in plumage and song; 
of the varieties of animals, of which the smallest in size 
are often the most wonderful ? Shall I speak of the sea, 
which itself is so grand a spectacle, when it arrays itself 
as it were in its vesture of various colors, now running 
through every shade of green, and again becoming purple 
or blue? How grateful is the alternation of day and night! 
how pleasant the breezes that cool the air ! how abundant 
the supply of clothing furnished us by trees and animals ! 
Who can enumerate all the blessings we enjOy? If I were 
to attempt to detail and unfold only these few which I 
have indicated in the mass, such an enumeration would 
fill a volume. And all these are but the solace of the 
wretched and condemned, not the rewards of the blessed ! 
What, then, shall these rewards be, if such be the bless- 
ings of a condemned state ! 'He that spared not his own 
Son, but delivered him up for us all, shall he not with 
him also give us all things?" (De Civitate Dei, XXII, 24). 

"In the description of these heavenly things, the Holy 
Spirit employs various earthly figures far surpassing 



Chap. XL.] ETERNAL LIFE. 551 

human understanding. But these figures should by no 
means be volatilized into what is purely spiritual ; on the 
contrary it is to be firmly maintained that they all are im- 
ages and shadows of the heavenly, and that, in the future 
world, they will find their complete realization. Just as 
certain as our resurrection body will be an actual body of 
a glorified nature, will the new earth be an actual earth, 
but, together with its creatures (Rev. 21 : 5) completely 
glorified. All in and on it will correspond to its new na- 
ture. According to Scripture, neither the animal, nor the 
vegetable, nor the mineral kingdom will be wanting there. 
For otherwise what meaning would there be in the pre- 
cious stones of Rev. 21, or the Tree of Life of Rev. 22? 
Add to this what the Lord says of drinking of the fruit 
of the vine anew in His Father's kingdom (cf. Luke 
13:29), what Paul writes of the deliverance of the crea- 
ture from its corruption into the glorious liberty of the 
children of God (Rom. 8:19 sqq.), and the prophetic 
predictions concerning the peaceful dwelling together of 
the wolf and the lamb, etc. (Is. 11 : 6-1 1 ; 60: 17-22 ; 62: 8, 
9; 65: 17-25). It is absolutely impossible for us to inter- 
pret these as entirely spiritual" (RohnerO. 

19. Will the rest of heaven be inaction? 

Wherever this rest is referred to, it is in contrast to the 
labor and effort, the trial and trouble of this life, where we 
have a constant struggle to maintain, and where every 
movement prompted by the Holy Spirit and directed to- 
wards God, encounters resistence (2 Thess. 1:7; Heb. 
4: 1, 6, 9, 11). But just as God's rest is not inaction (cf. 
Gen. 2:2 with John 5: 17), and declares only a change 
in the mode of His activity, so with that of the redeemed 
in their new life. "We shall stand in a state of unfettered 
vitality. The somatic-psychical organism will be the ab- 
solutely adequate means for the action of the spirit, all 
mortality and passivity of the body shall have vanished. 



552 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLL 

The new spiritual body also is raised into fulness of spir- 
itual energy. Man will be free from the possibility of 
sin, not through the loss of freedom, but through the in- 
destructible energy of love springing from union with 
God" (Dorner). 

It is the life of angels that men will live in their re- 
stored bodies. But it will be more. They will not only 
all serve, but not until then will their kingship be fully 
realized. However they who know of ruling and reigning 
only from a distance may deem it a life of indolence, they 
who are competent to judge know that it is the very high- 
est form of activity. 

2 Tim. 2:12 — "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him." 
Rev. 22:5 — "They shall reign for ever and ever." 

Only then will every sanctified power and capacity and 
attainment of the believing reach its goal in the service 
of God, or rather in the rule and direction of every faculty 
and possession to His glory. 

"So far from life being done, when this portion of it is 
accomplished, we should rather say, that life is now only 
so far advanced that it may truly be said to begin; all this 
temporal and partial work, all the commotions and agita- 
tions of history, and the long conflict of the Church on 
earth, prepares only for this beginning; because herein 
the creation of man is only now at length fully accom- 
plished" (Martensen). 

1 Tim. 6:19 — "The life which is life indeed." 



CHAPTER XLL 

THE DIVINE PURPOSE AS INTERPRETED BY ITS CONTENTS 

AND RESULTS. 

i. What is the sum and substance of God's revelation 
of Himself to man? 

His Grace and Mercy in Jesus Christ (see Chapter IX), 
This is shown in the devising and execution of a Plan of 
Redemption, the various stages of which have now been 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 553 

successively traced, according to what has been stated in 
Chapter IX, 20. The time has now come according to the 
order observed by Paul in the Epistle to the Romans 
(Chapter IX, 22, 23) for the treatment of Predestination.* 
All the provisions of the Gospel in detail go to make up 
what Predestination includes. For whatever God does 
in time He has purposed to do from all eternity. Unlike 
man, His plans are not modified by circumstances that 
had not been anticipated. 

2. What is the meaning of "Predestination" ? 

Generally speaking, an act by which something is pre- 
determined or foreordained. "The particle 'pre' denotes 
the priority of time that intervenes between the decree of 
Predestination and the men who are said to be predes- 
tinated ; so that there is a destination of men to eternal sal- 
vation, before they were or began to be" (Bechmann). 

3. In what two senses is the word used? 

"The term is taken in (a) a more general sense, with 
respect to both the believing and the unbelieving, as the 
destination of both the former and the latter to a particu- 
lar end ; and thus Predestination is the destination to eter- 
nal salvation of those who believe unto the end, and to 
eternal damnation of those unbelieving unto the end ; in 
which sense Predestination comprises also Reprobation. 
This, however, is not the meaning of the term in this 
article, (b) Predestination is taken in the language of 
Scripture, in so far as it is opposed to Reprobation, and 
denotes only the destination or ordination of those who 
finally believe to eternal life, and that this has been done 
before those who believe were, viz., from eternity" (lb.). 



*It is an interesting fact that even Calvin postpones the treatment of 
this subject to the very close of the Third of the Four Books into which 
he divides his "Institutes," viz., until after he has discussed Justification. 

This order was adopted also by our Lutheran theologian, Conrad Diet- 
rich, in his Institutiones Catecheticae of 1613, who treats of Predestination 
after his exposition of the last article of the Apostles' Creed; and by Hutter 
in his Loci of 16 19, who puts it at the close of Soteriology. 



554 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

4. What synonym is there for Predestination? 

Election. They refer to the same act of God, but con- 
note different relations. Predestination connotes the 
priority of the act to the existence of those with whom it 
has to do; Election connotes the particularity of the act 
arid indicates that it is not universal. 

5. Define Predestination or Election. 

It is the eternal decree, purpose or decision of 
God, according to which, out of pure grace, He de- 
termined TO SAVE OUT OF THE FALLEN, CONDEMNED AND 
HELPLESS HUMAN RACE EACH INDIVIDUAL WHO, FROM 
ETERNITY He FORESAW, WOULD, BY HlS GRACE, BE IN 

Christ unto the end of life. 

6. What is the force of the expression, "out of pure 
grace"? 

That this decree was in no respect or degree whatever 
determined or influenced by the consideration of anything 
existing within those who were elected. The motive for 
the election is found entirely within God. 

Eph. 1:5 — "Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus 
Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Rom. 11: 
5, 6 — "There is a remnant according to the election of grace. But it it is 
by grace, it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." 

7. What is meant by God's determination "to save 
out of the human race"? 

It means that Election is not, as Huber strangely taught, 
universal. The very term "Election'' declares this, and so, 
also the results show ; for not all are saved. 

8. What is declared by the words "out of the fallen, 
condemned and helpless human race"? 

That man's fall, condemnation and sinful estate are not 
in consequence of the decree of Predestination, but that it 
assumes or presupposes all this. It is lost and fallen men 
whom Predestination is to eternally save. Predestination 
is God's determination to provide a remedy for the con- 
sequences of the fall. 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 555 

9. Why do you say "each individual' '? 

Because Election deals with men, not as a class, but as 
individuals. Each and everv man, woman and child who 
will be saved" eternally, was separately and individually 
the object of God's election from all eternity. As we are 
born and die and must give an account to God as indi- 
viduals, as we are regenerated, justified and sanctified, 
as individuals, as we are baptized and receive the Lord's 
Supper as individuals ; so also Election or Predestination 
is an act of God's will with respect to each person and 
each case individually, and to a class only because consti- 
tuted of such individuals. 

"In his counsel, purpose and ordination, he prepared 
salvation not only in general, but in grace considered and 
chose to salvation each and every person of the elect, who 
shall be saved through Christ'' (Formula of Concord, 

653). 

10. What is the force of the words "zvho from eternity 
he foresaw"? 

To affirm, first, that the decree is as the word Predes- 
tination itself implies, prior to the existence of the per- 
sons, with whom God's mind and will were thus occupied ; 
secondly, that Predestination is not identical with fore- 
knowledge ; and, thirdly, that, speaking of course anthro- 
pomorphically, but nevertheless in accordance with Holy 
Scripture and, therefore, with absolute truth, foreknowl- 
edge is not dependent upon Predestination, but Predestin- 
ation upon foreknowledge. 

11. Why cannot Predestination be identified with 
foreknowledge? 

"Because foreknowledge extends to all creatures, good 
and bad. He foresees and foreknows everything that is 
or will be, that is occurring or will occur, whether it be 
good or bad, since before God all things, whether they be 
past or future, are manifest and present. . . . But Pre- 



556 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

destination pertains not at the same time to the godly and 
the wicked, but only to the children of God who were 
elected and appointed to eternal life before the foundation 
of the world was laid (Eph. 1:4, 5)" (Formula of Con- 
cord, 650). 

12. In ivhat sense is Predestination dependent upon 
Foreknozvledgef 

Since God has not predestinated all that He has fore- 
known ("for all that the perverse, wicked will of the devil 
and of men purposes and desires to do and will do, God 
sees and knows before," lb.), but, in His inexplicable 
will, has allowed a certain measure of freedom and con- 
tingency in His creatures, and afforded them a degree of 
moral responsibility, knowing from all eternity what will 
be the result of their use of this trust, He also has deter- 
mined how in every case their decision and activity will 
be treated. The divine foreknowledge unerringly records 
all the future, and the divine will acts with reference to 
all thus recorded without destroying the freedom of the 
will of the creature with respect to those things which 
He has left to this freedom (see Chapter V, 18). When, 
therefore, God has willed that He will be determined in a 
certain decision by the free decision of a creature, that 
freedom of the creature will certainly be guaranteed in the 
result ; but what in the exercise of this freedom, the de- 
cision of the creature will be, as well as the determination 
of His will concerning it He knows from all eternity, and 
makes His plans accordingly. "Thus there is no doubt 
that God most exactly and certainly saw, before the time 
of the world, and still knows who, of those who are called 
will believe or will not believe ; also who of the converted 
will persevere in faith and who will not ; who after a fall 
will return and who will perish in their sins" (Formula 
of Concord, 659). 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 557 

13. Is the decree of Predestination, therefore, ab- 
solute? 

The answer to this question depends upon the meaning 
of "absolute." If it means "fixed," "irrevocable," "includ- 
ing no conditions," it is absolute. The decree of election 
contains no proviso. Its formula is not : "Mary Mag- 
dalene shall be saved, in case, by God's grace, she be in 
Christ unto the end of life." The fulfilment or non-ful- 
filment of the proviso or condition is contained in the fore- 
knowledge which determined the predestination. That 
Mary Magdalene is in Christ, by God's grace, at the end 
of her earthly life, is foreseen and foreknown from all 
eternity ; and this being foreknown, she is an elect child 
of God whose salvation is irrevocably predestinated. 

If, however, "absolute" mean that no condition be ad- 
mitted in the divine foreknowledge, and that there is no 
order established with respect to which the election is 
determined, and outside of which there is no election, its 
application is incorrect. 

'This eternal election or appointment of God to eternal 
life is not to be considered in God's secret, inscrutable 
counsel in such a manner as though it comprised in itself 
nothing further than that God foresaw w r ho and how 
many would be saved, and who and how many would be 
damned, or that he only held a review, and would say : 
'This one shall be saved, that one shall be damned ; this 
one shall remain steadfast, that one shall not remain 
steadfast' " (Formula of Concord, 651). 

14. Is it conditional? 

This must be answered in the same way. In the de- 
cree there is no condition or proviso. But the differ- 
ence between the persons elected and those who are non- 
elect is determined not by any unwillingness of God to 
provide for the salvation of all, but upon a different rela- 
tion and attitude which they bear towards the Order of 
Salvation provided in Christ. 



55§ A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

"For this reason, the elect are described thus : 'My sheep 
hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me, and 
I give unto them eternal life' (John 10:27 sq.). And 
(Eph. 1 : 11, 13) : Who, according to the purpose, are pre- 
destinated to an inheritance, who hear the Gospel, believe 
in Christ, pray and give thanks, are sanctified in love, 
have hope, patience and comfort under the cross (Rom. 
8:25) ; and although in them all, this is very weak, yet 
they hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt. 5:6). 
Thus the Spirit of God gives to the elect the testimony 
that they are the children of God, and, when they know 
not for what to pray as they ought, He intercedes with 
groanings that cannot be uttered. Thus, also, Holy Scrip- 
ture shows that God, who has called us, is so faithful that, 
when He has begun a good work in us, He also will pre- 
serve and continue it unto the end, if we do not turn our- 
selves from Him, but retain firmly to the end the work 
begun, for retaining which He has promised His grace" 
(Formula of Concord, 655). 

All this is to the effect, that the elect, according to God's 
will, comply with a certain order, while the non-elect, not 
by God's will, are outside of that order. "By this particu- 
lar election, God closed the door of salvation upon no 
one, when, according to His infallible foreknowledge, He 
elected not all, but only some to salvation. For this was 
done, not because He was unwilling to elect all, or because 
He is even now unwilling that all be saved, but because He 
knew beforehand that only a few, mid not all would re- 
cieve His Word, and persevere in faith" (Quenstedt, 

HI, 51)- 

15. What caution have our theologians shown in ap- 
plying these terms? 

They define the decree as "not absolute, but ordinate 
and relative ; not conditionate, but categorical and simple." 
By "ordinate" they mean "that which is determined by a 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 559 

certain order of means" ; since it is God's good pleasure 
through the foolishness of what is preached, i. e., through 
the entire series of agencies comprised in the Gospel, to 
save them that believe (i Cor. I : 21). In saying that the 
decree is not conditionate, they distinguish between it and 
God's will. When "God willed, according to His im- 
mense goodness, to give salvation to all upon the condi- 
tion of faith in Christ, this will was conditionate, while 
the decree of election was not conditionate'' (Hollazius), 
since it was based on infallible foreknowledge and was, 
therefore, as stated under 13, irrevocable, and without a 
proviso. 

16. State the condition upon which the decree which is 
not conditionate is based? 

That the person, concerning whom the decree is made 
be "in Christ," and that too, "unto the end of life." 

Eph. 1 14 — "Even as he chose us in him beiore the foundation ot the 
world." 

No one is elected unless he be and remain in Christ. 
His being in Christ is not the consequence, but the condi- 
tion of his election. Nevertheless this "being in Christ" 
is not a consummation which man attains by his own 
powers, but as the definition further states (see above, 5) 
even this is "by the grace of God" (see Chapter, IX, 20). 
For it is "by the grace of God," that the Son of God be- 
came incarnate, and by His obedience procured that merit, 
in virtue of which alone our salvation and inheritance of 
eternal life are possible. The sole ground of election, 
therefore, is the merit of Christ. 

17. But does not the expression "in Christ" declare 
even more than that the merits of Christ have been pro- 
vided for mans salvation? 

It affirms that what Christ has provided has also been 
applied and appropriated. Although Christ has died for 
all, not all are elect, since not all are to the end of life "in 



560 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

Christ." What it is "to be in Christ," Paul declares in 
Phil. 3:9: 

"And be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even 
that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the 
righteousness which is from God by faith." 

"In" denotes "the cause of account of which." 
The decree of election therefore is in view of the right- 
eousness of Christ, as by faith it belongs to the one who is 
predestined to eternal life. What distinguishes the non- 
elect from the elect, is that the former are without, and the 
latter have the faith which appropriates Christ's righteous- 
ness and makes it their own. 

18. Does not this introduce a synergistic error into the 
statement of Predestination by making faith a cause of 
election, and thus denying that it is an act of God's 
free will? 

No statement can be guarded with such care that it is 
not liable to be perverted when taken by itself. The rela- 
tion of faith to Predestination is precisely the same as it 
has to Justification. Men are justified not on account of 
faith, but through faith on account of the merits of Christ ; 
or on account of faith apprehending the merits of Christ. 
Precisely so, they are elected, not on account of faith, 
but through faith on account of the merits of Christ ; 
or on account of faith apprehending the merits of 
Christ. The merits of Christ do not justify, unless 
apprehended by faith ; neither does faith justify, if it ap- 
prehend any other object than Christ, or if it even appre- 
hend Christ outside of His divinely-human person and the 
righteousness which He has acquired through His priestly 
office. Both Predestination and Justification, therefore, 
are on account of the merits of Christ apprehended by 
faith. Nothing can be ascribed to faith in the one sphere, 
that cannot be ascribed to it in the other ; neither should 
anything be denied to it in the one sphere, that is not 
denied to it in the other. Justification is the record in 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 561 

time of God's eternal Predestination ; Predestination is 
the record from all eternity of that which was to occur 
in our Justification. Hence such difficulties must always 
be solved by turning to the article of faith particularly in- 
volved. (See especially Chapters XVII, 15-17; XVIII, 

19. Can you cite the opinion of any Lutheran theolo- 
gian generally recognized as worthy of consideration? 

"With loud voice we declare that, in electing man to 
eternal life, God found nothing good in man, and that He 
regarded neither good works nor the use of the free will, 
nor even faith itself, so as to elect these movements or on 
account of them to elect some men ; but we say that it was 
the only and sole merit of Christ, whose worth God re- 
garded and out of pure grace made the decree of election. 
Nevertheless since the merit of Christ has a place in man 
only through faith, we teach that election was made with 
respect to the merit of Christ to be apprehended by faith. 
All those and they alone, we maintain, have been elected 
by God from eternity unto salvation, who, He foresaw, 
would, by the efficacy of the Holy Spirit through the min- 
istry of the Gospel, truly believe in Christ as Redeemer, 
and persevere in faith unto the end of life. We will 
present, with utmost brevity, the arguments for this : 
(1) Election zvas made in Christ (Eph. 1:4). But it is 
only through faith that we are in Christ (Eph. 3:17). 
Therefore they 'who hereafter believe in him,' are elect 
(1 Tim. 1 : 16). (2) Election is a decree concerning jus- 
tifying and saving men. But it is only by faith that God 
in time justifies and saves men (Rom. 3, 4; Gal. 2, 3; 
Eph. 2, etc.). Therefore God determined from eternity 
to justify and save only those who would believe ; and, as 
a consequence, He has chosen all those and those alone 
who He has foreseen, would by faith remain in Christ. 
(3) Outside cf Christ none are elected. But sinful men, 



562 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

without regard to faith, are outside of Christ. Sinful 
men, therefore, are not elected without regard to faith. 
Accordingly, as Paul says (Eph. 1:4), that God has 
elected us in Christ, so 2 Thess. 2: 13 says that He elected 
us in faith ; since we could not have been elected in Christ 
except with regard to faith apprehending Christ. . . . 
Justification which occurred in time, is a mirror of the 
Election which occurred before time" (Gerhard, II, 86). 
'The things which God does in time are the manifesta- 
tion of what He decreed to do in time. From this, we 
infer that the manner in which He justifies and saves men 
in time, is that of the eternal decree concerning their sal- 
vation, which is called election. . . . But 

John 6:40 — "This is the will ot my Father that every one that beholdeth 
the Son and believeth on him, should have eternal life." 

. . . To sum up, the decree and the execution of the 
decree most exactly correspond. From this it is mani- 
fest that the decree neither of Election nor of Reprobation 
is said to be absolute, but that the decree of Election was 
made with respect to Christ as He is to be apprehended 
by faith, and that all they and they alone are elect of God, 
whom God foresaw would perseveringly believe, by the 
efficacy of the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the 
Word, in Christ the restorer of the human race. So, in 
turn, the decree of Reprobation was made with respect to 
final impenitence and unbelief" (lb., II, 49). 

20. Can this be reduced to a tabular form? 

Yes. 

The Merits of 

. Christ accepted bv 

Justified ) r • 1 , -p .,r 

Paul was 1 £ ]ected \ In view of <j faith ; or, of Faith 

accepting the mer- 
its of Christ. 

The formula of Justification and that of Election are 
one and the same. Nothing dare be admitted with re- 
spect to Justification which is rejected with respect to 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 563 

Election. Est enim vera regula ilia usitata: Eaedem sunt 
causae Electionis quae sunt Justiticatwms (Hutter, L. 
T., 801). 

21. What factors must always be kept clearly in mind 
in attempting to construct a satisfactory statement of this 
subject? 

'The following pillars standing, the Absolute Decree 
falls ; the Absolute Decree standing, these pillars fall : 

"1. God seriously wishes all to be saved. 

"2. God created all in Adam according to His own 
image, a part of which is immortality. 

"3. Christ, by His obedience and sanctification, merited 
salvation for all. 

"4. The Holy Spirit in the Word offers the means of 
salvation to all. 

"No one, therefore, has been excluded from salvation 
by any absolute decree" (Gerhard, II, 81). 

"We should accustom ourselves not to speculate con- 
cerning the pure, secret, concealed, inscrutable foreknowl- 
edge of God, but how the counsel, purpose and ordina- 
tion of God in Christ Jesus who is the true Book of Life 
have been revealed to us through the Word, viz : . . . 

"1. That the human race should be truly redeemed and 
reconciled with God through Christ. . . . 

"2. That such merit and benefits of Christ should be 
offered, presented and distributed through His Word and 
Sacraments. 

"3. That He would be active and efficacious in us by 
His Holy Spirit through the Word. . . . 

"4. That all who in true repentance, receive Christ by 
a true faith, He would justify. . . . 

"5. That those who are thus justified, He would 
sanctify. . . . 

"6. That He would defend them against the devil, the 
world and the flesh, and would rule and lead them in His 



564 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

ways, and when they stumble would raise them again, and 
under the cross and in temptation, would comfort and 
preserve them. 

"7. That the good work He has begun He would sup- 
port unto the end. .... 

"8. That those whom He has elected, called and justi- 
fied, He would eternally save and glorify in life eternal" 
(Formula of Concord, 653). 

22. But is not faith the fruit and result of Predes- 
tination? 

A confusion may readily result by using the word Pre- 
destination in two different senses. Bene docet qui bene 
distinguit. On the one hand, Predestination refers to 
God's determination to provide salvation for man and in- 
cludes the entire series of agencies whereby this is to be 
accomplished, viz., the Incarnation of the Son of 
God, Redemption, the gift of the Holy Spirit, Calling, 
Illumination, Regeneration, Justification, Sanctification, 
the Means of Grace, the Church, the Ministry, etc. In 
this sense, faith is a fruit and result of Predestination. 
But, on the other hand, Predestination is applied to that 
which makes a difference between men, i. e., the eternal 
Election whose effect is to produce two distinct classes, 
the elect and the non-elect. This is the sense in which it is 
being treated here. Faith is not the result of Predestina- 
tion in this sense, but enters into the condition, viz., as 
joined with the merit of Christ which it apprehends. Even 
the merit of Christ is in the one sense of Predestination, a 
result, for the gift of Christ was the result of foreordina- 
tion ; but in the other, and that the usual sense of the 
term, it is the condition. 

23. Is there no need of caution, however, in stating the 
relation of faith to election? 

Certainly. For faith is too frequently regarded a re- 
sult of man's own powers, and the words of the Catechism 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 565 

forgotten : "I believe that I cannot, of my own reason and 
strength, believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord or come to 
Him." There is a strong tendency to make of it a ground 
instead of a mere organ for receiving mercy. (See Chap- 
ter XVII, 11-13.) It is to this that the Formula of Con- 
cord refers when it says (665) : "It is false and wrong, 
when it is taught that not alone the mercy of God and the 
most holy merit of Christ, but that there is also in us a 
cause of God's election, on account of which God has 
chosen us to eternal life." 

24. Are all who believe elect or predestinated to life? 
It has been shown (Chapter XVII, 36), that faith can 

be lost, and that too, so as never to be restored (Chapter 
XVII, 37; VIII, 59, 60). Not all, therefore, who are re- 
generate are elect ; but they only who, at the end of life, 
believe in Christ. For the promise is : 

Rev. 2:10 — "Be thou faithful unto death, and 1 will give thee the crown 
of life." 

25. Can the Elect fall from God's grace? 

Yes ; but only for a time. For if they were to be perma- 
nently alienated from God, they could not be elect, since 
the divine foreknowledge is infallible (see Chapter 
V, 17, 18). 

26. Can one know whether he be elect? 

He can know that he is regenerate and justified (Chap- 
ter XVII, 38-40), and that no means or effort will be lack- 
ing on God's part, that he be retained in this grace. 

John 10:28 — "No man shall snatch them out of my hand." Phil. 1:6. 

But as man, by his own will, can abandon this grace at 
any time during his earthly career, his certainty of election 
is "not absolute, but conditionate and ordinate." Hence 
Paul apprehends, 

"lest that, by any means, after that I have preached to others, 1 myself 
should be rejected," 1 Cor. 9:27. 

But at the close of life, he is so absolutely sure of his 
election, that, with the greatest confidence, he exclaims : 



566 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

2 Tim. 4:7, 8 — "I have fought the good fight, 1 have kept the taith, 1 
have finished my course; henceforth, there is laid up tor me the crown ot 
righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that 
day." 

"Between the Scylla of perpetual doubt and the Charyb- 
dis of absolute security, the ship of our faith, following 
the pole-star of God's Word, makes its way. We trust 
God on account of the rich and infallible promises which 
He has given us ; yet, at the same time, we fear God, on 
account of the weakness and temptations of our flesh ; 
and, therefore, with most earnest entreaties, pray Him for 
the gift of perseverance, and trust that we will obtain it, 
but yet, to avoid all carnal security, ask that our faith be 
confirmed by meditation upon the Word and the use of the 
Sacraments, and earnestly strive to advance daily in the 
path of godliness" (Gerhard, II, 105). 

27. What is the remedy for doubt as to zvhether one 
be in the number of the Elect? 

"If faith be weakened in temptations, 'and the sense of 
faith be almost extinguished, we ought to regard the gen- 
eral promises in which God offers His grace to all ; the 
merit of Christ which concerns all ; the ministry of the 
Word and Sacraments, in which God offers the blessings 
of His Son to all ; Baptism, the answer of a good con- 
science towards God ; we must resort to the use of the 
Lord's Supper, in which Christ offers the very body for 
us to eat, which He gave to death for us, and the very 
blood for us to drink which He shed for us on the altar 
of the cross. From all this we ought to infer that God 
sincerely wishes that, knowing our sins, we believe in 
Christ, and by faith become partakers of eternal sal- 
vation" (lb.). 

28. What of the disposition of God towards the 
Non-elect? 

They are said to be "reprobate" ( 1 Cor. 9 : 27 ; 2 Cor. 
13:5), i. e., "disapproved," "abandoned," "rejected." 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 567 

29. Is Reprobation exactly the reverse of Predestina- 
tion or Election? 

No. For Reprobation simply leaves fallen man to the 
consequences of his sin, while Predestination or Election 
introduces a new order, viz., that of Redemption by which 
salvation from sin is provided. 

30. Is the state of the Reprobate precisely the same as 
though Christ had not died and the offers of the Gospel 
had not been made them? 

No. Their guilt and punishment are increased. 

John 15:22 — "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had 
sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin." 3:18 — "He that beheveth 
not hatn been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of 
the only-begotten Son of God." 16:9 — "He will convict the world of sin, 
because they believe not on me." 

31. What then is Reprobation? 

It is the divine decree according to which, God, in the 
exercise of His justice, leaves those who to the end of life 
reject the offers of divine grace to the consequences of 
their sins, and particularly to those of the increased guilt 
incurred by not believing in Christ. 

32. Why is Predestination particular instead of uni- 
versal? 

The answer for this question is not to be found in the 
absolute will of God. For "from eternity he determined to 
so concur with His Word and the preaching of the Gos- 
pel, that no one would lack faith except those who, to 
the end of life, would despise the means of conferring 
faith and grace itself."* All passages of Scripture in 
which God declares that it is not His will that any perish, 
clearly prove this (Ez. 33 : 11 ; 2 Peter 3:9; Matt. 23 : 37 ; 
see Chapter IX, 10-16). Predestination becomes particu- 
lar, therefore, through the free will of man repudiating 
and opposing, until the end of life, God's purposes of love. 



*"Omnibus hominibus sufficiens gratia datur; iniidelibus, ut credant; 
fidelibus, ut perseverent." — (Hutter, L. T. 798.) 



568 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

33. But is not this contrary to Rom. 9: 15 sqq.: "I will 
have mercy on whom I will have mercy,'' "Whom he will 
he hardenetli' ? 

This passage is entirely misunderstood when it is in- 
terpreted as though it taught that God created some for 
wrath, as well as some for mercy. Paul is doubtless 
wrestling with doubts and difficulties which often met 
him in the consideration of this question. The "old man" 
in Paul questions God's justice with respect to the differ- 
ent destinies of men, and the argument of the "new man" 
in Paul in reply, is to the effect, that the difference rests 
not upon justice, but upon pure mercy ; and yet that, in 
this exercise of mercy, even though it would be restricted, 
there would be no violation of justice. Where all de- 
served eternal death, there could be no complaint of in- 
justice no difference how many or how few were included 
in the Plan of Redemption. The question as to the extent 
of this provision is clearly answered in other passages. 

"Since it was the Apostle's purpose to vindicate the 
justice of God from the tongues of Jewish objectors, he 
demonstrates that God is everywhere just, whether, out 
of mercy, He save men, or, by His just judgment, He 
harden and condemn them. As an example of hardening, 
he cites Pharaoh, the greatest persecutor of the Church. 
But upon whom He wishes to have mercy, and whom He 
wishes to harden, the Apostle does not determine in this 
passage. All Scripture, however, shows that God in His 
beloved Son wills to have mercy upon all who believe, and 
that He wills to harden those who contumaciously strive 
against His Word, in order in them to declare His justice, 
as is shown by the example of Pharaoh." 

"The application is not to be made that, as the potter 
from the same mass makes some vessels for honor and 
others for dishonor ; so God, by an absolute decree creates 
some predestinated to salvation, and, by an absolute de- 



Chap. XLI.] THE DIVINE PURPOSE. 569 

cree, creates others rejected to condemnation and destruc- 
tion. For this would be in conflict with: I. The Context. 
The Apostle does not say that God prepares vessels of 
wrath, but that 'with much long-suffering he endureth 
vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction.' \\ "hat God en- 
dures with much long-suffering, He does not Himself 
make. Augustine has beautifully said : 'God does not 
make z'essels cf wrath, but finds them; He does not find 
vessels of grace, but makes them.' 2. With Scripture, 
which so interprets this long-suffering of God, that by it 
/God invites to repentance' (Rom. 2:4). How, therefore, 
can He fit them for destruction, who wishes that they 
should no longer be vessels of wrath ? 3. With the very 
words of the Apostle. They are called 'vessels of wrath' ; 
but there can be no wrath of God, where no iniquity of 
man has preceded. 4. With the rules of illustrations. As 
Chrysostom says : 'Illustrations must not be taken 
throughout.'" The potter deals with senseless clay which 
does not resist his will. Can this be said of men some of 
whom resist the Holy Spirit, despise the counsel of God, 
and repel the Word? With neither class of vessels, 
whether fitted for honor or for shame, is the potter angry. 
But of men. fitted for destruction, the Apostle says that 
they are 'vessels of wrath.' 5. With the article of Creation. 
For man was created in the image of God, of which im- 
mortality was the chief part. With the article of Redemp- 
tion; for the Son of Man came to save that which was 
lost. With the very nature of God, who is not angry 
with his own work (Wis. 11:25, etc.)" (Gerhard, 
II, 63 sq.). 

34. As this article contains so many difficulties, mould 
it not be better to entirely ignore iff 

By no means. Only, as before stated, care must be 



*Cf. the Latin axiom: 'Omne simile claudicat. 



570 A SUMMARY OF CHRISTIAN FAITH. [Chap. XLI. 

taken that it be treated at the proper place, and upon the 
basis of all the other articles. 

"For the doctrine concerning this article, if presented 
from and according to the pattern of the divine Word, 
neither can nor should be regarded as useless or unneces- 
sary, much less as causing offence or injury, because the 
Holy Scriptures not only in but one place and incidentally, 
but in many places, thoroughly discuss and explain the 
same. Therefore, on account of abuse or misunderstand- 
ing, we should not neglect or reject the doctrine of the 
divine Word, but precisely on that account, in order to 
avert all abuse and misunderstanding, the true meaning 
should and must be explained from the foundation of 
Scripture" (Formula of Concord, 649). 

35. What consolation does the consideration of this 
doctrine in its true place and order afford? 

(a) It shows most effectually "that we are justified and 
saved without all works and merits of ours, purely out of 
grace, alone for Christ's sake. For before we were born, 
yea before the foundation of the world was laid, when 
we could do nothing good, we were chosen, according to 
God's purpose, out of grace and in Christ, to salvation." 

(b) It shows that God was so solicitous concerning this 
salvation, that before the world began, He deliberated 
concerning it and ordained how to bring it to pass.* 



*Beautifully expressed in a familiar hymn of Paul Gerhardt: 

"From all eternity, with Love 

Unchangeable, Thou hast me viewed. 

Ere knew this beating heart to move, 
Thy tender mercy me pursued." 

So also J. A. Rothe: 

"Now I have found the ground wherein 

Sure my soul's anchor may remain; 
The wounds of Jesus, for my sin, 

Before the world's foundation slain; 
Whose mercy shall unshaken stay, 
When heaven and earth are fled away." 



Chap. XLL] the divine purpose. 571 

(c) It shows that He was so earnest concerning my 
salvation, that He has put its accomplishment in the 
hands of one no less powerful than the Son of God Him- 
self, and that from these hands no one can wrest us 
(John 10 : 28 : Rom. 8 : 38, 39). 

(d) It shows also the part which the cross, i. e., the 
sorrows, afflictions and temptations of this life, performs 
in contributing to the attainment of the divine purpose. 
Through them, as Paul teaches in Rom. 8 : 29, the elect 
are fashioned after the image of the Son of God (see 
Formula of Concord, 657, 658). 

36. In what does the special peril lie in its treatment? 

''Our curiosity always has much more pleasure in in- 
vestigating those things that are hidden and abstruse than 
what God has revealed in His Word.'" However far we 
proceed in our treatment, we have no sooner solved one 
difficulty, than another meets us. Mystery crowd's upon 
mystery, like summit upon summit upon the traveler in a 
mountainous region, who finds each mountain height only 
the opening to other heights beyond. No human termin- 
ology can be devised to adequately express the doctrine, 
or to be beyond the need of qualifications and explana- 
tions, so as to avoid being misunderstood. These diffi- 
culties, the Formula of Concord declares, "we cannot har- 
monize," and what is more, "we have not been com- 
manded to do so," i. e., God has not called us to such 
task. Here, as in every other article of divine revelation, 

Deut. 29:29 — "The secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the 
things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever." 

Like John, in the Apocalypse (Rev. 4 : 1), we see in this 
doctrine a door opened in heaven, and are permitted to 
look through and get a faint glimpse of what is beyond. 
Let us beware of penetrating farther than to the utmost 
limit of that for which we have God's call. As in the 
doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Incarnation of the Son 
of God, we must be content to stand there. Faith begins, 
where reason ends. 



57 2 EXCURSUS. 

EXCURSUS 

I. 

ON MATT. 22 : 14. 

"For many are called; but few chosen!' 

[From the "Harmony of the Four r^vangelists," by Chemnitz, Lyser and 
Gerhard. The exposition here translated is by Gerhard.] 

'The reason why few are chosen is not placed in any 
absolute decree of God, but in men themselves. From the 
Parable of the Wedding Garment, both these proposi- 
tions can be most clearly established. That God is not 
responsible for the paucity of the elect, is apparent from 
all that is ascribed to God in the parable : 

"1. 'He made a marriage feast for his son.' By this, 
the eternal decree of God is meant, that, in the fulness of 
time, His Son should assume human nature, and per- 
sonally unite it with Himself, and in it accomplish the 
work of redemption. For since God, from eternity fore- 
knew that man whom He would create in perfect right- 
eousness and holiness would transgress, by voluntary 
disobedience, the law which would be given, and, by this 
transgression would bring upon himself and all his pos- 
terity, eternal death, He also decreed from eternity to pre- 
pare a remedy for this fall in Christ as Mediator. This 
eternal decree of God clearly shows that God is not de- 
lighted by the death of any one, but desires, and that too, 
earnestly, that all be saved ; for He decreed to send His 
Son as Mediator for all, and decreed to offer this salutary 
remedy to all. 

"2. That in the fulness of time, He put this decree into 
execution, and 'prepared the marriage for His Son,' i. e., 
sent Him into the flesh. This work of God also shows 
that He desires the salvation of all, and has rejected no 
one from absolute hatred. For in giving His Son to the 



THE DIVINE PURPOSE. 573 

whole world (John 3: 16), in His Son He offered salva- 
tion to the whole world. Because since, by His assumed 
human nature, He is 'of one substance' with all men, God 
follows none of them with absolute hatred, but wants all 
to partake of His blessings. 

"3. That He gave His Son to death for all men (Rom. 
8:32). For we have shown above, that by 'oxen and 
fadings' in this parable, the passion and death of Christ 
are mystically signified. He was slain on the altar of the 
cross, to prepare all things which are required for the 
celebration of this wedding feast. But from manifest 
declarations of Scripture written by the rays of the sun, 
it is evident that Christ died for all men (Rom. 5:8; 
2 Cor. 5:14; 1 Tim. 2:6; Heb. 2:9). Wherefore the 
passion and death of Christ are evident testimony that 
God sincerely desires that all enjoy the blessings of the 
heavenly feast both in this world and the next. 

"4. That He has called the human race, on account of 
its relationship to the assumed human nature of His 
Son, to participation in His blessings and association of 
eternal joys ; for this is what is meant in this parable by 
the call to the marriage of His Son. But those to whom 
God in and through the call offers the blessings of His 
Son, He has not reprobated from any absolute hatred. 
From the call itself, therefore, we infer that it is no fault 
of God that only a few are chosen ; otherwise election 
would be opposed to the call and condemnable hypocrisy 
would be ascribed God in calling to the wedding, by an 
external 'will of the sign,' those whom with the internal 
'will of the purpose,' He wanted to be absolutely ex- 
cluded from the wedding. A careful consideration of the 
manner in which this call is described, will make it the 
more manifest that the cause of the small number of the 
elect should be ascribed to the called themselves. The 
call is described as universal and serious* It is universal 



574 EXCURSUS. 

because pertaining to all people, times and places. . . . 
That it is serious is manifest from the fact that the King 
is wroth with those declining the invitation, and heavily 
punishes this contempt of His call. If God, therefore, 
seriously calls all to partake of His Kingdom, He un- 
doubtedly rejects none from absolute hatred. Hence the 
cause why only a few are elected cannot be ascribed 
to God. 

"5. Neither must the fact be passed by that it is 
through His servants, i. e., through ministers of the 
Church, He calls to the wedding. Whatever, therefore, 
they do according to His Word in giving the call, He 
ratifies. But they 'preach the Gospel to every creature' 
(Mark 16. 16) ; 'teach all nations' (Matt. 28: 10) ; 're- 
prove every man and teach every man' (Col. 1 : 28), and 
that, too, according to Christ's instructions. This, there- 
fore, God ratifies, and, thus, through these His ministers, 
He offers to all the word of the Gospel, and with the 
word of the Gospel, the blessings of His Son ; and in His 
Son, life and eternal salvation. How, then, could He 
have rejected from absolute hatred some men, yea the 
greater part of the human race? That to all called to 
the marriage of His Son He offers gratuitously the wed- 
ding garment, in which they may appear in a worthy man- 
ner at the wedding, we have above shown. In the call, 
therefore, and the word of the call, it is His will that 
there be an efficacious means in the hearts of men for their 
conversion, illumination, regeneration, justification, reno- 
vation and sanctification ; all of which may be understood 
in a certain way as the wedding garment. But if He de- 
sires to effect all these things by the Holy Spirit in the 
hearts of the called, undoubtedly the fault is not attribut- 
able to Him that some are without the wedding garment, 
and, therefore, are cast into outer darkness, i. e., that they 
are not of the number of the elect. As, further, by the 



THE DIVINE PURPOSE. 575 

word of the Gospel, it is His will to enkindle faith in the 
called, so also, by the same means, He wishes to preserve 
and increase it ; and, hence, that some lose the wedding 
garment of true faith, cannot be His fault, neither can it 
be ascribed to Him ; but they for themselves, and of their 
own accord, reject the garment that has been given them 
out of grace, and, on this account, deserve to be cast out 
of the wedding feast. 

"6. That He is not angry, neither sends His armies to 
burn and destroy, nor calls others to the marriages, pass- 
ing by the former guests, before those called decline com- 
ing, slay the servants who give the invitation, and make 
themselves unworthy of the royal wedding; and that He 
commands no guest to be expelled until one is found who 
has rejected the wedding garment, makes it clear that ex- 
clusion from this royal wedding depends entirely upon 
the consequent and judicial will of God, whereby, on 
account of obstinate contempt of the call, and on account 
of persevering unbelief, He has excluded from salvation 
some whom, by His antecedent will, He wished to save, 
and offered to them the means of grace (Acts 13:46). 

"All these circumstances testify more clearly than the 
light of noonday that the reason why there are only a few 
elect is not to be sought in any absolute decree of God. 
But that the cause is to be sought only in the men them- 
selves, Christ teaches also in this parable in which he 
presents to us four classes of men who, by their own 
fault, are excluded from the joys of the wedding feast. 

"Let us apply this, therefore, to our profit : 
"1. Theoretically, so as to oppose the truths above 
mentioned against perilous opinions concerning the abso- 
lute decree of Election and Reprobation, the distinction 
between the Will of the Sign and the Will of the Purpose, 
Election on account of Foreseen Works, the Merit of our 



576 EXCURSUS. 

works, doubt of grace and perseverance. For if God calls 
all, and, in the word of the Gospel, offers to all the bless- 
ings of His Son, He undoubtedly has reprobated none 
from absolute hatred. If the call is serious, we must not 
think that He calls some only with the external will of 
the sign, and externally. If both call and election are 
gratuitous, neither occurs on account of foreseen works. 
If our salvation depends upon gratuitous election, it does 
not come to us because of the merits of our works. If 
Election does not fail, true believers in Christ should 
never doubt concerning the grace of God and the perse- 
verance of faith," etc. 



II. 

LUTHER ON SPECULATIONS CONCERNING PREDESTINATION. 

(From a letter to Caspar Aquila, Oct. 21, 1528, De 
Wette's Luther's Briefe, III, 391 sqq.) 

"Why is it that we most miserable men who as yet are 
unable by faith to receive the rays of the divine promise or 
by our works to reflect the smallest sparks of the divine 
commands, notwithstanding our impurity and weakness, 
should assume to rise to the comprehension of the light 
of the sun, yea to the incomprehensible light of God's 
mysteries ? Do we not know that He dwells in light unto 
which no man can approach? And yet we approach, or 
rather presume to approach ! Do we not know that His 
judgments are past finding out? And yet we endeavor 
to find them out ! This too we do, before we have been 
enlightened by the rays of the promise and the sparks of 
the commandments. With the eyes of moles we rush into 
the majesty of that light which cannot be described by 
words or signs ; yea, is hidden and not revealed. What 
wonder if the glory stupefy us, while we look upon its 
majesty ! What wonder, if, in a reverse order, we seek 
for the fullest light, before we seek for the day-star. Let 



THE DIVINE PURPOSE. 577 

the day-star first arise in our hearts (as 2 Peter 1.: 19 
says) then we will be able to see at last the light of 
noonday. 

: 'We must teach, indeed, concerning the inscrutable will 
of God, in order that we may know that there is such a 
thing, but to endeavor to comprehend it is a most perilous 
precipice. Hence I am accustomed to confine myself to 
the word of Christ to Peter : 'If I will that he tarry till 
I come, what is that to thee ? Follow thou me' ; for Peter 
had asked concerning God's dealings with another, viz., 
as to what was to be the lot of John. So when Philip 
asked : 'Lord, show us the Father, and it sufnceth us/ 
He checked him with the words : 'Believest thou not that 
the Father is in me, and I am in the Father? He who 
sees me, sees also the Father.' For Philip wanted to see 
the majesty and secrets of the Father, as though God were 
far beyond the promises and commands concerning 
Christ. So too, the wise man says : 'Seek not the things 
that are too high for thee ; but diligently think of what 
has been commanded thee' (Ecclesiasticus 3:22). Be- 
sides, only consider, I ask, what advantage would it be 
for you to know these secret judgments of God, beyond 
his commands and promises ? Tell him, therefore, that, 
if he wants to have peace of heart and to avoid the perils 
of blasphemy and despair, he must abstain from such 
thoughts, since he knows they are clearly incomprehen- 
sible. Why does he permit himself to be tormented by 
Satan with things that are impossible ; as though one were 
to be rendered anxious as to how the earth could stand 
upon the waters without sinking into them, or the like ? 
First let him busy himself with the promises and com- 
mandments ; and then he will see whether he ought to 
attempt impossibilities in addition. If he neglect this 
advice, let him beware lest he repent too late. There is 
no other remedy for such thoughts than to absolutely 



578 EXCURSUS. 

abandan them ; although while Satan urges them, it is 
very difficult to do so, since he represents that they de- 
mand examination. For this reason, we must contend 
here no less with contempt, than with distrust, despair 
or any other heresy. The majority are deceived by 
not recognizing such thoughts as temptations of Satan ; 
and for this reason almost every one despises them or tries 
to despise them although they are the fiery darts of the 
most wicked of the most wicked of spirits in heavenly 
places. For by them Satan fell from heaven, when he 
wanted to be like the Most High, to know all things which 
God knows, and was not content with knowing only what 
he ought to know. Here we must fight by fleeing ; and 
must not try to be wiser than we should be, but be sober ; 
for otherwise one will be overcome. For we cannot think 
of Christ, while such thoughts prevail. Adam fell, when 
the prohibition of one tree troubled him with questions 
concerning the wisdom and will of God. In short, this is 
the chief temptation and one that is peculiarly diabolical ; 
it is enough for us to experience such as are common to 
man. This will furnish an answer also to the other ques- 
tion, viz. : that the preacher should discharge the duty 
with which God has entrusted him, without regard to- 
what God has not commanded, viz. : as to the question why 
one hears and another does not. 'What is that to thee,' 
says Christ. 'Follow thou me,' me, me, me, not your 
questions, or speculations." 

Every reader of Luther's writings knows the references 
he repeatedly makes to the aid afforded him by Staupitz 
when he was tormented by abstract speculations concern- 
ing Predestination. "Begin with the wounds of Christ," 
said Staupitz ; "then all arguing concerning Predestina- 
tion will come to an end. . . . But when men follow their 
own thoughts, the Laudate ceases and the Blasphemate- 
begins." 



THE DIVINE PURPOSE. 579 

His final opinion is in the last of his works, his "Lec- 
tures on Genesis" (Opera Exegetica, 6:296, 300). 

"Audi Filium incamatum et sponte se offeret Praedes- 
tinatio. . . . When, therefore, the devil attacks thee, say 
only : 'I believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom I have 
no doubt that He became incarnate, suffered and died for 
me, and that into His death I have been baptized.' At 
this reply, the temptation will cease and Satan will turn 
his back. . . . This also must we do : we must cease our 
disputations, and must say: T am a Christian,' i. e., 'The 
Son of God was incarnate and born. He has redeemed 
me. He sits at the right hand of the Father, and is my 
Saviour.' In the very fewest words thus repell Satan : 
'Get thee behind me. God's Son came into the world, to 
destroy thy work and dispell all doubt.' . . . Through 
Christ and the Gospel, God reveals to us His will. This 
we reject with disdain, and, after the example of Adam, 
are delighted with the forbidden tree above all others. 
This vice inheres in our very nature. Paradise and heaven 
are closed. While the angel guards the entrance, in vain 
do we attempt to enter. For Christ has said truly : 'No 
man hath seen God at any time' (John 1 : 18), and, never- 
theless, of His immense goodness, God has revealed Him- 
self to us, in order to satisfy our desire. He has presented 
to us His visible image. 'Lo, thou hast my Son,' He says. 
'He who hears Him and is baptized is in the Book of 
Life. This I reveal through my Son, whom thou canst 
touch with thy hands and gaze upon with thine eyes.' 

'These things I have desired to present thus carefully 
and accurately. For after my death, many will quote from 
my books, and attempt to establish errors and fancies of 
every kind. Among other things, I have written, it is 
true, that all things are absolute and necessary. But, at 



580 EXCURSUS. 

the same time, Ihave added that God is to be considered 
only as He has been revealed, as we sing in the Psalm : 

'Ask ye, Who is this? 

Jesus Christ it is, 
Of Sabaoth Lord, 

And there's none other God,' 

"And I have taught thus in many other places. But 
they will pass by such passages, and will seize hold only 
of those concerning God as unrevealed (de Deo abscon- 
dito). You, then, who are now listening to me, remember 
that I have taught that we are not to inquire concerning 
the Predestination of an unrevealed God, but that we are 
to acquiesce in what is revealed through the call and the 
ministry of the Word. For there thou canst be certain of 
thy faith and salvation, and canst say: 'I believe in the 
Son of God who said, He that believeth in the Son, hath 
everlasting life (John 3 : 36). In Him, therefore, there is 
no condemnation or wrath, but the gracious purpose of 
God the Father.' This protest T have made elsewhere in 
my books, and now enter it once more with my living 
voice. Ideo sum excusatits." 



APPENDIX 

ON THE SPIRITUAL PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS. 



BY DR. PHILIP J. SPENER (a. D. 1677). 



(Translated from the Bibliothck Theologischer Klossiker, Vol. 
XXI, Gotha, 1889.) 

1. What is the Spiritual Priesthood? 

The right which our Saviour Jesus Christ has purchased for all 
men and for w'hich He has anointed with His Holy Spirit those 
who believe on Him, in virtue of which they bring acceptable 
sacrifices to God, pray for themselves and others, and should 
edify, each himself and his neighbors. 

2. Is there any scriptural testimony concerning it? 
Yes ; Rev. 1:5, 6 ; 5:10; 1 Peter 2 : 9. 

3. Why is it called a Spiritual Priesthood? 

Because it brings no bodily, but only spiritual sacrifices, and, 
in its office, has to do only with spiritual functions (1 Peter 2: 5). 

4. Whence is this Spiritual Priesthood derived? 

From Jesus Christ, the true High Priest, according to the order 
of Melchisedek (Ps. 110:4), who, since He has no successor in 
His priesthood, but remains alone to all eternity a High Priest, 
has also made Christians priests before His Father, whose sac- 
rifices have their holiness and are accepted before God solely 
because of His (Heb. 8:1-6; 7:23-28; cf. Question 2; 1 Peter 
2:5). 

5. How do Christians become priests? 

As in the Old Testament, priests were not elected, but were 
born to the office, so it is regeneration in baptism that gives us the 
divine right of children of God, and therefore puts us into the 
spiritual priesthood which is combined with this (James 1:18). 

6. Does not anointing also pertain to the Priesthood? 

Yes; and just as priests of old were set apart with holy oint- 
ment (Ex. 28:41), and just as Christ was anointed (Ps. 451-7) 
with the most holy oil of gladness, the Holy Ghost, and, on this : 
account, is called Christ, "the Anointed One" ; so out of grace 
(John 1 : 16) has He made those who believe on Him partakers^ 

581 



582 APPENDIX. 

although in a less degree (Ps. 45:7; Heb. 1:9), of the same 
anointing. 

7. Are all believers, then, partakers of the anointing? 

Yes. All have received and continue to possess it, as long as 
thev persevere in the divine order (1 John 2: 19, 26). 

8. But for what purpose was Christ anointed? 

As King, High Priest and Prophet, since it was customary in 
the Old Testament to anoint such persons. 

9. For what are those who believe on Him anointed? 
Likewise as Kings, Priests and Prophets, since the office of 

prophet is included under that of priest (see Q. 2). 

10. Who are such spiritual priests? 

All Christians without distinction (1 Peter 2:9); old and 
young, man and woman, bond and free (Gal. 3:28). 

11. But does not the name "priest" belong only to the 
preachers? 

No. Preachers, according to their office, are not properly 
priests. They are nowhere so called in the New Testament, but 
are "ministers of Christ" ''stewards of the mysteries of God," 
"bishops," "ciders," "ministers of the Gospel," "of the Word" 
etc. On the contrary, the name ''priest," is a general name 
of all Christians, and does not belong to preachers in any 
other sense than to other Christians (1 Cor. 4:1; 3:5; 1 Tim. 
3 : 1, 2 ; 5 : 17 ; Eph. 3:6, 7 ; Acts 26 : 17 ; Luke 1:2). 

12. But are not preachers the only "spiritual" ones? 

No. This part also belongs to all Christians (Rom. 8:5, 9). 

13. What are the duties of the Spiritual Priesthood? 

They are of various kinds. But we may distribute them into 
three chief functions: (1) That of sacrifice; (2) that of praying 
and blessing, and (3) that of the divine Word. Of these, the 
former 'has always been known as the proper office of the priest- 
hood, while the last is also called the prophetic office. 

14. What have spiritual priests to offer? 

First of all, themselves, with all that belongs to them, so that 
they desire no more to serve themselves, but only Him who has 
purchased and redeemed them (Rom. 6 : 13 ; 14: 7, 8; 2 Cor. 5: 15; 
1 Cor. 6:20; Ps. 4:5; 110:3; I Peter 3:18). Therefore, as the 
sacrifices in the Old Tes'ament were separated from other animals 
(Ex. 12:3-6), so they must separate themselves from the world 
and its defilements (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; James 1:27). 



APPENDIX. 583 

For this reason, they were called "an elect race" (Lev. 20:26; 

1 Peter 2 : 9). 

15. How have we to offer our bodies and their members 
to God? 

By devoting our bodies not to sin, but only to God's glory and 
service (Rom. 12:1; 6:13; cf. Q. 14); and, therefore, keeping 
it under discipline (1 Cor. 9:27), and by suppressing the wicked 
lusts which attempt to work through our members. This lust is 
known in Scripture as "cutting off" our members (Matt. 5:29, 
30; 18:8, 9; 19: 12). 

16. Hew should we offer our souls to God. 

To the end that, with our bodies, they be the holy temples and 
dwelling-places of God (1 Cor. 3:16, 17); that our reason be 
brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5); 
that our will submit to the divine will with true resignation and 
prompt compliance (1 Sam. 15:22; Matt. 6:10, 26, 39; Heb. 
10: 5-7) ; that our spirit and heart in true penitence be an accept- 
able offering to God (Ps. 51 : 17, 18). 

17. How have we, further, to offer ourselves as a sacrifice 
to God? 

By being willing to accept every cross from His hand ; by 
offering ourselves for Him to send upon us whatever pleases 
Him (2 Sam. 15 : 26) ; and being ready, also, to surrender our 
life according to His will, for His glory (Phil. 2:17, 18; 

2 Tim. 4 : 6). 

18. Should zee not also sacrifice our old Adam to God? 
Just as ''the devoted thing" (Lev. 27:28, 29) which was killed, 

was consecrated and thus sacrificed to God; so, in the same sense, 
should we put to death and sacrifice our old Adam (Rom. 6:6; 
Gal. 5-24; Col. 3:6). 

19. What else have we to offer? 

Our hearts and tongues for prayer, praise and thanksgiving 
(Ps. 141:2; 50: 14, 23; 69:30, 31; Heb. 13: 15; Ps. 27:6; 107:22; 
116: 17, 18; Hos. 14:3) ; as well as our bodily possessions, if we 
see that His glory is thereby promoted, and there be occasion to 
show mercy to those in distress, especially to the members of 
Christ (Heb. 13:16. Matt. 25:40; Acts 24:17; Phil. 4:18; 
Luke 21 : 1-4). 

20. Is there nothing still further for us to offer? 

Yes ; especially the doctrine of the Gospel, and with it our fel- 
lowmen, who are thereby converted and sanctified to God (Mai. 
1:11; Rom. 15:16; Is. 60:7; Phil. 2:17, 18; cf. Q. 17). 



584 APPENDIX. 

21. But have we not also to bring such offering to God, in 
order to atone for our sins? 

No; for Christ alone, by His sacrifice, has made satisfaction for 
us ; and whoever adds his own sacrifice for satisfaction, dispar- 
ages and contemns that of Christ (Heb. 10:14). 

22. But arc the above-mentioned sacrifices which zee bring to 
God, entirely pure? 

Of themselves, they would not be perfectly pure, but, in virtue 
of the holy sacrifice of Jesus, ours are also pure, and please God, 
for His Son's sake (1 Peter 2:5). 

23. How often and when should we offer such sacrifices? 
Always'; throughout our entire lives; for while we devote and 

consecrate ourselves, once for all, with body and soul, when we 
first give our hearts to His service, such resolution should not 
only be often repeated, but also daily, yea hourly, such sacrifices 
should be offered the Lord. 

24. Beside the sacrifices, what else belonged to the office of 
Christ, as Priest? 

As the High Priest of the Old Testament blessed (Num. 
6:23-27) and prayed for the people (Num. 16:47; 2 Chron. 
30:27) ; and Christ, also, as a true High Priest of the New Tes- 
tament has given us His blessing (Mark 10:16; Luke 24:50; 
Acts 3:25, 26; Eph. 1:3), and prayed (John 17:9, 20; Luke 
22:31, 32; 23:24) and still prays for us (Rom. 8:34; 1 John 
2:1; Heb. 9:24; 7:25; see Q. 4) ; it is the duty of Christians to 
offer to God prayers not only for themselves, but for their fellow- 
men (1 Tim. 2: 1-3; James 5 : 14-16; Eph. 6: 18, 19; Acts 12: 5), 
and to bless them (Matt. 5:44; Rom. 12: 14; 1 Peter 3:9). This 
prayer and blessing, for Christ's sake, is not useless, but is ef- 
fectual (Matt. 18:19, 20; James 5:16; 1 Tim. 2:3). 

25. What is, then, the third office of priest? 

As priests were occupied with God's Law (Mai. 2:7), so also 
it is the office of spiritual priests that the Word of God should 
dwell richly among them (Col. 3: 16). This is known otherwise 
as the Prophetic office. 

26. Are all Christians, then, preachers, and have they to de- 
vote themselves to the office of the ministry? 

No; but in order to fulfill this office publicly, in the Church, 
and before and over all, a special call is necessary. Whoever, 
then, : assumes this right above others or attempts to force himself 
into the ministry, thereby sins (Rom. 10: 15; Heb. 5:4)- Hence 
the teachers are one, and the hearers another class (1 Cor. 



APPENDIX. 585 

12:28-30), as to their reciprocable duties the Haustafel (i. e., 
Tabic of Duties appended to the Catechism) gives explicit in- 
formation. 

27. But what, then, have they to do with the Word of God. ? 
To use it for themselves, and alongside of and with others. 

28. How have they to use it for themselves? 

Not only by hearing it when preached in the church, but also 
by diligently reading or having it read. 

29. Is it. then, the duty of all Christians to diligently read the 
Scriptures? 

Yes. Since it is a letter of the Heavenly Father to all His 
children, no child of God is excluded, but all have the right and 
command to read it (John 5 : 39). 

30. But would it not be better, if they would simply believe 
all that they hear from their pastor? 

No; but they are to search the Scriptures, in order to test the 
doctrine of their pastor, so that their faith may rest not upon their 
regard for and confidence in a man, but upon divine truth 
(Acts 17: 11). 

31. Are the Scriptures, therefore, not too difficult for simple 
persons who arc without education? 

No. For even in the Old Testament, the divine Word was 
given, in order to make wise the simple (Ps. 19:7; 119:130), 
and that fathers might teach it diligently to their children (Deut. 
6:6, 7). But the New Testament is still clearer (Rom. 13:12; 
1 John 2:8). Accordingly Christ did not direct His teaching 
to the wise and prudent of this world, but to the simple (Matt. 
11:25, 26). Every one also who wants to understand Jesus, 
must put aside all worldly wisdom and become a child (Matt. 
18:3; Luke 18:17). Paul, therefore, and all other Apostles did 
not discourse in high words but in the power of God, which was 
hidden from the wise, but revealed to infants, in accordance with 
the unsearchable wisdom of God, which "by foolish preaching" 
has brought to naught the wise of this world (1 Cor. 1:18-24; 
2:1-5; 2 Cor. 1: 12; 10:4, 5). Hence the Apostles have written 
their epistles mostly to unlearned and simple men, w ? ho could 
not have understood them, from, heathen arts or sciences, but 
who, without them, by the grace of God, could understand them 
to their salvation (1 Cor. 1:2; 2:6-10). 

32. But is there not in the Scriptures much that is obscure, 
and. therefore, too high for the simple? 

The Scriptures themselves are not obscure, as they are not 



5^6 APPENDIX. 

darkness, but a light (Ps. 119: 105; 2 Peter 1 : 19). Nevertheless 
there is much in them, too high not only for the simple, but also 
for the most learned, and which, because of our darkened eyes, 
appears to us as dark (1 Cor. 13:9, 10). 

33. Would it not, therefore, be better if plain persons would 
not read them? 

No. As the learned should not be hindered from searching 
them by the fact that they frequently fail to understand many 
passages, so also we should not interfere with their study by 
simple, godly souls who seek in them a confirmation of their faith. 

34. Can they then, in their simplicity, learn to understand 
them? 

Yes, of course. As, first of all, the chief points of doctrine and 
rules of life are so clearly taught in the Scriptures, that every 
simple person as well as the learned, can learn and comprehend 
them ; where godly minds have received and applied with obedi- 
ence the first truths which are offered them, and continue, with 
meditation and prayer, to read the Scriptures, God the Holy Ghost 
will open to them their meaning more and more, so that they 
can also learn and understand that in Scripture which is higher 
and more difficult, so far as it be necessary for the strengthening 
of their faith, instruction in life, and consolation (Matt. 13:12; 
John 14:21; 2 Tim. 3:15-17). 

35. But as they do not have the assistance of foreign languages 
and of sciences of various kinds, how is it possible for them to 
understand the Scriptures? 

It would be desirable if all Christians could diligently devote 
themselves to the study of the Hebrew and Greek languages, in 
which the Scriptures were written, as they are accustomed to do 
with other foreign languages needed for secular pursuits, and 
thus, as far as possible, could learn from the Holy Spirit in His 
own language. But since, by God's grace, the Scriptures are now 
translated into other languages, so that every one may find there- 
in enough for his necessary knowledge of Christianity, the want 
of acquaintance with foreign languages does not hinder godly 
Christians from such true knowledge of that which God regards 
profitable for their edification. Much less is the want of acquaint- 
ance with other sciences a hindrance, since, even in the case of the 
learned, they are not properly means for the saving knoivledge 
of the truth, but, when rightly used, only serve to explain further 
the truth that has been learned by the soul, and to properly state 
it, and to establish and vindicate it against the attacks of others. 



APPENDIX. 587 

36. Whence, then, do simple, godly Christians hare the ability 
to understand the Scriptures? 

By the illumination of the Holy Spirit, at whose prompting 
they were first committed to writing, so that, without His light, 
they cannot be understood (2 Peter 1:21; 1 Cor. 2:12)'. But 
God has promised the Holy Spirit to all who call upon Him, and, 
therefore, not merely to the learned (Luke 11:13; James 1:5; 
1 John 5:14. 15). From His anointing and illumination, there- 
fore, they understand according to the measure of grace alloted 
each one. everything in Scripture which is needed for their sal- 
vation and growth in the inner man (1 John 2 : 20 ; Eph. 1 : 17, 18). 

yj. But what have they to do in the reading of the Scriptures, 
in order to be assured of their truth? 

(1) That they never come to the Scriptures without earnest 
prayer for the gift of the Holy Spirit, and with the purpose to 
accept its power and efficacy, and not only to learn to know, but 
also to obediently apply what they learn, to the glory of God. 

(2) That they do not allow their reasons to be masters, but 
that they most carefully attend to the words of the Holy Ghost, 
as they are written, and compare these words with what precedes 
and follows ; that they ponder and believe its meaning, and there- 
fore regard every word of the Holy Ghost with the closest con- 
sideration, and examine whatever is read in the light also of other 
passages of Scripture. 

(3) Tliat they read everything with a personal application to 
themselves, so far as it concerns them and is profitable for their 
edification. 

(4) That they, first of all, take to themselves whatever they 
find clear therein, and base their faith upon it. and immediately 
order their lives according to the obligation which they recognize. 

(5) That what in the beginning* they find too difficult to be un- 
derstood, they pass over and reserve, until gradually after much 
reading and prayer, if they continue faithful to the truth they 
have previously known, they obtain more light in regard to pas- 
sages previously not understood. 

(6) That they always in humility, receive and put into practice 
all the knowledge which God gives them, and be content with 
His grace. 

(7) That they be ready and willing to converse concerning 
Scripture with godly preachers and other Christian persons, and 
if they be perplexed, take counsel of such advisers, and be willing, 



588 APPENDIX. 

where, by God's grace they show them the true meaning of a 
passage, to receive it humbly and in the fear of God. 

38. Is it necessary, then, to the salutary and living knowledge 
of Scripture, that we should seek to be improved thereby? 

Yes, of course; for otherwise we read it not as the Word ot 
the great God, which it, nevertheless, is. Regard for this should 
not only produce in us profound reverence, but also obedience. 
What we hear from His Word and mouth, we should do imme- 
diately and much more zealously than if a great earthly potentate 
had enjoined it upon us. He who does not read the Scriptures 
in this way, and who does not read them as the Word of God, 
and thus confines their power to himself, does not attain to their 
true spiritual knowledge (John 7:17; Ps. 111:10; 2 Peter 1:8, 
9; 3: 16; 2 Cor. 4: 3, 4; 2 Thess. 2: io ; ii ; 1 John 2 : 3, 4; 4: 7, 8). 

39. But hozv can readers hinder this use of Scripture and thus 
do themselves injury? 

(1) When, against the rules above given, they read the Scrip- 
tures without earnest prayer and without the purpose of divine 
obedience, but only from motives of personal ambition and to 
satisfy their curiosity. 

(2) When they follow the judgments of their reason, and give 
them more weight than the words of the Holy Ghost. 

(3) When they consider not w r hat is profitable for their edifica- 
tion, but only what they may use for their glory or in contro- 
versy with others. 

(4) When they despise the simple passages, and those easily 
understood, but 

(5) Apply themselves only to those that are more difficult, and 
concerning which there has been much controversy, in order to 
find in them something that is out of the ordinary range of 
thought, and may make them more conspicuous. 

(6) When they use what they learn with pnde, and so as to 
serve their own honor. 

(7) When they think that they alone are wise, selfishly resist 
better instruction, take pleasure in controversy, and receive 
nothing with modesty and discretion. 

(8) But especially when they lead a carnal life, so that the 
Holy Spirit cannot abide in the them. In such persons, the read- 
ing of the Holy Scriptures effects nothing. They receive only 
a natural knowledge of the letter of the Scriptures, without the 
inner power of the Spirit, and, by God's judgment, can, therefore, 



APPENDIX. 589 

become only the more hardened and incapable (2 Tim. 3:7-9; 
Titus 1:15, 16; Jude v. 10). Compare passages under Q 38. 

40. But would it not be better to leave the more diligent in- 
vestigation of the Scriptures to the preachers, and for the rest to 
abide by their simplicity? 

All Christians are bound to simplicity, i. e., not to desire to 
investigate what God has not revealed, so that their reasons 
should not be masters in regard to matters of faith. But if by 
abiding by simplicity, it be meant that they who are not preachers 
should not endeavor always to grow in knowledge, this is con- 
trary to God's will, shameful ignorance, indolence and ingratitude 
towards the riches of divine revelation ; since it is our duty to en- 
deavor not to be simple but to be wise and intelligent, and. by 
means of practice, to have our senses exercised to distinguish good 
and evil (Heb. 5: 14; Rom. 16: 19; 1 Cor. 14:20; Eph. 1: 15-19; 
4: 14; Col. 1 : 9-12, 28). 

41. What, then, would one do who would commend such sim- 
plicity to the people? 

He would thereby directly contradict God's command and will, 
detract from His glory, obstruct the progress of His Kingdom, 
and hinder all the good which can and should arise by such 
growth in knowledge, to the greatest danger of the souls of 
others, and to his own condemnation. 

42. But where all would so diligently study the Scriptures, 
would not confusion result? 

If such study proceed only from curiosity and carnal science, 
from which the attempt is made to derive ambitious theories and 
to engage in controversy with others, no good can result. But 
if conducted according to the above rules, a divine and salutary 
wisdom follows, which prevents rather than creates all con- 
fusion (James 3:17, 18). 

43. But are Christians ahvays to be occupied with God s Word, 
so as no longer to attend to their worldly business? 

It is indeed their greatest joy to be occupied with their God 
and His Word rather than with their own necessities (Ps. 
119: 103). But since they live in the world, and, therefore, both 
need labor for the support of their bodily life, and, for the general 
good, have been placed 'by God in particular callings, where they 
have bodily labor and business, they discharge these also, accord- 
ing to the power which God has given them, with conscientious 
diligence, avoid all idleness, and ? in such service, show their 



59° APPENDIX. 

* 

fidelity towards God and their love of their fellow-men (Luke 
10:39-42; 1 Cor. 7.20 sq. ; 1 Thess. 4. 11 sq. ; 2 Thess. 3:11 sq.). 

44. But have Christians to treat God's Word only for their 
own good? 

No, but they should act in this with and by others for their 
edification. Compare Questions 25-27; 1 Peter 4:10; 2:9; 
1 Thess. 5:11. 

45. What is the preaching of which Peter speaks (1 Peter 

2:9)? 

That they speak with others concerning it and praise the grace, 
kindness and fidelity of our Father in heaven, who has redeemed 
us men from the power of darkness, from sin, death, the devil 
and hell, and, by the Holy Ghost, has called us to the marvelous 
light of righteousness and blessedness ; and, on this account, that 
they should no more walk in darkness, but in the light. This 
summary comprises all that they are to preach. 

46. Has the Christian, then, an obligation with respect to the 
salvation and edification of others? 

Yes, of course. This is indicated again and again in the Word 
of God, and all the parts of the Catechism teach it. 

47. How is it shown in the Ten Commandments? 

We have in the Second Table the general command to love our 
neighbor as ourselves. His life, i. e., all his welfare is entrusted 
to us in the Fifth Commandment. If then I so love myself, as, 
first of all, to care for my soul and its temporal and eternal wel- 
fare, I am under obligation to show the same love towards my 
fellow-men. Again, if, out of love, I am under obligation to pro- 
tect him from all danger to life and body, this love obliges me 
still more to help him, as I am able, from not suffering any peril 
of soul (James 5: 19, 20). 

48. What is taught us on this point in the Apostles' Creed? 
Since in it we confess that there is a communion of saints, this 

refers not only to a fellowship of heavenly blessings which we 
enjoy in and with one another, but also in the fellowship of a 
fraternal love that is directed towards a spiritual end (1 Cor. 
12:25, 28). 

49. What concerning this duty do zve find in the Lord's 
Prayer? 

Since we acknowledge and call upon a common Father, we 
should be charitably and fraternally disposed towards all ; such 
brotherly . love includes care for the welfare of our neighbor. 



APPENDIX. 59I 

Further, since, in this prayer, we pray not only for ourselves but 
also for our brethren, we are also in duty bound to endeavor, 
with all our powers, that God's name may be sanctified by and in 
our fellow-men, and that God's Kingdom may be founded and 
established, and His will in and concerning them be done. For 
whenever I pray for anything with real earnestness, I try also, 
so far as I can, to advance it. 

50. Hoiv does our Baptism refer to this? 

Since it is that whereby we are incorporated with Christ, and, 
therefore, all become members of one spiritual body, such com- 
munion requires that every member according to his power ad- 
vance the highest interest of every other member (1 Cor. 12:13; 
Eph. 4: 15 sq.). 

51. Is the Lord's Supper directed towards the same end? 

Yes since it is a meal of love, and (as we are all partakers of 
one bread), signifies that we are one body; the duty above men- 
tioned is further confirmed (1 Cor. 10: 17). 

52. But how have believing Christians to use the divine Word 
among their fellow-men? 

Since the Scriptures have been given for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16), 
and besides for consolation (Rom. 15:4); believing Christians 
should use the Scriptures for all these purposes, and, therefore, 
should teach, convert from error, admonish, reprove and comfort, 
as the Scriptures repeatedly show. 

53. Is this then for all Christians? 

Yes, according to the gifts, which God has given every one; 
and with observance of the rule that this should not be done 
publicly before the entire congregation, but privately at every op- 
portunity, and, therefore, zvithout any hindrance of the regular, 
public office of the ministry. 

54. How have Christians to teach? 

By endeavoring, when they meet with uninformed people, to 
instruct them in simplicity of faith, and to lead them to the 
Scriptures. Besides, when Christians are together and read with 
one another the Scriptures, that, for the edification of the rest, 
each one modestly and in love, states what God has enabled him 
to see in the Scriptures and what he deems serviceable for the 
edification of the rest (1 Cor. 14:31; Col. 3: 16; A. 25). 

55. How can they convert the erring? 

By showing them their error plainly out of God's Word, and 



59 2 APPENDIX. 

admonishing them to receive the truth (James 5:19, 20; see 
Q. 47). 

56. IV hat have they to do in admonition ? 

By frequently, and at every opportunity, admonishing and en- 
couraging each other, by God's aid, to carry into effect what they 
recognize as necessary ; by such admonitions hearts are greatly 
strengthened in that which is good (1 Thess. 5:14; Heb. 3:13; 
10 : 24 sq. ; Rom. 15 : 14) . 

57. How do they exercise the office of reproving? 

That when they see their brethren sin, they kindly and tenderly 
reprove them for it, point out the wrong and seek to persuade 
them to amend their course (Lev. 19:17; Prov. 24:24, 25; Matt. 
18: 15; Gal. 6:1, 2; Eph. 5:11; 1 Cor. 14: 24, 25). 

58. How in consoling? 

That when they are with the afflicted, they declare to them the 
divine consolations and encourage them according to their ability 
(1 Thess. 4:18). Also that, in case of necessity,' where no 
regular preacher can be had, that they give the consolation of the 
forgiveness of sins or absolution (Luke 17:3, 4; 2 Cor. 2: 10). 

59. Do the offices mentioned belong to all Christians? 

Yes ; and not merely that fathers and mothers of families, in 
their houses, diligently train their children and servants, but that 
every Christian also has the right and authority to so do with 
respect to his brother and sister as the above mentioned passages 
prove (compare Q. 31 ; Deut. 6:6, 7 ; Eph. 6:452 Tim. 3 : 15). 

60. But do Christian women have any share in such priestly 
offices? 

Yes, of course ; for here there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither 
bond nor free, neither man nor woman, but they are all one in 
Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). In Christ, therefore, the distinction 
between man and woman, as to what is spiritual, is removed. 
Since God also favors believing women with His spiritual gifts 
(Joel 2 : 28, 29; Acts 21 : 9; 1 Cor. 11 : 5), their use of these gifts, 
in the proper order, dare not be forbidden. The Apostles men- 
tion the godly women who colabored with them in edifying 
others; and so far are they from finding fault with them on this 
account, that they, on the contrary, praise them for it (Acts 
18: 26; Rom. 16: 1, 2, 12; Phil. 4:2, 3; Titus 2: 3-5). 

61. But are not women forbidden to teach? 

Yes, in the public assembly of the Church. But that outside of 
such public assembly, they are allowed to teach, is clear from the 



APPENDIX. 593 

above passages and Apostolic examples (i Cor. 14:24 sq. ; 
1 Tim. 2 : it, 12). 

62. But in what zvay have Christians to exercise such offices? 

According to the opportunity which God and Christian Love 
offer, so that they do not violently obtrude themselves upon any 
one, but only deal with those who are ready to accept such 
offices in love. 

63. Is it proper for assemblies to be held for such purposes? 

Just as in other respects, they may edify one another according 
to opportunity, so also it cannot be improper for a few well- 
known friends to come together occasionally expressly for the 
purpose of going over the sermons with one another and recall- 
ing what they have heard, reading the Scriptures and conferring 
in the fear of the Lord as to how they may apply to practice what 
they read. This provision only being made, that there be no large 
assemblies, which may have the appearance of a separation and a 
public meeting; in order, thereby, not to neglect the public service 
and to bring it into disesteem, or to disparage the regular preach- 
ers, and so as otherwise to keep within their limits, and not to 
neglect their necessary work and what pertains to their callings; 
nor so as to act contrary to the will of parents, but to willingly 
give an account of what they do, and thus avoid every appear- 
ance of evil. 

64. But should one be appointed in such assembly as a teacher 
of the others? 

No; for such priesthood is common to all alike, and, according 
to it, one must learn from the rest, as he is ready in the divine 
order to teach. 

65. But is it right for those who have not studied to devote 
their attention to intricate questions and dark passages of Scrip- 
ture, and to be intent upon discussing them? 

No. This would be officious, since such a matter cannot be 
readily done except by preachers endowed with extraordinary 
gifts. It is the office of spiritual priests only to search from God's 
Word as to how they all may be established in the foundations of 
the faith, and be edified to a godly life (see Q. 37, No. 5). 

66. Are any duties with respect to the Sacraments included in 
their office? 

Since we are in duty bound to furnish the means of grace to 
children, whom according to His promise, He wishes to be saved, 



594 APPENDIX. 

any godly Christian may administer baptism, in case of necessity, 
where no preacher is to be had ; and such baptism in so far as the 
divine order has been observed, is a right, true and valid baptism. 
But as to the Holy Supper, a case of necessity cannot ordinarily 
occur, since, where a regular preacher cannot be had, one desiring 
consolation may be directed to the spiritual partaking of Christ 
by faith ; hence this Sacrament is not of equal necessity with 
baptism. 

67. But are not disgraceful confusion and disorder in the 
Church to be apprehended from this? 

Where proper care is not taken to keep everything within its 
limits, this, as well as everything else that is good, may, by man's 
fault, be perverted to evil. But this is not to be feared where 
both, viz., the office of the ministry as well as the spiritual priest- 
hood discharge their duties according to Christ's rules. 

68. What, then, has the ministry to do, in order that all dis- 
order be avoided ? 

Ministers should instruct their people frequently concerning 
this spiritual priesthood, and not hinder the exercise of its func- 
tions, but rather guide them. They should note how their hear- 
ers do their part, and sometimes demand of them an account. 
Where they proceed wisely they should support and strengthen 
them ; but where they have failed from ignorance, they should 
correct them with love and tenderness. Especially they should 
avoid falling into erroneous speculations, controversy or false 
doctrine, and proceeding further than is profitable for Christian 
edification ; and thus throughout to retain the control and Chris- 
tian guidance of the work. 

69. But how have Christian priests to conduct themselves so 
as to avoid disorder ? 

By aiming from pure love in all things at their own edification 
and that of their neighbor, and doing nothing for their own glory, 
or other carnal purposes; by not undertaking what is too high for 
them ; and, therefore, by their confidential intercourse with godly 
preachers, asking for their counsel, accepting their aid and afford- 
ing them every possible facility for the discharge of the duties 
of their office ; cordially giving an account for whatever they do, 
and following their advice; and especially, by refraining from all 
detraction and censures of the same and injuring no one in his 
office, considering that any discord which may result thence will 
do more damage, than their best efforts can repair. 



APPENDIX. 595 

70. But have not spiritual priests the power to judge their 
preachers? 

Yes ; by diligently testing their doctrine as to whether it be 
according to the divine Word, and when they find it based upon 
Scripture, following it; but when they find it to be false, and, 
when without heeding any protests in private conference, they 
persevere in their error, by avoiding from thence such false doc- 
trine (Acts 17:11; see Q. 30; 1 Thess. 5:20, 21; 1 John 4:1; 
Matt. 7: 15). 



ANALYSIS 



CHAPTER I. 
Sources and Methods. — Pages 

Question. 

i-4 

."- .5,6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

ii 



1-17. 



Definitions 

Scope . . . 

Elements 

Relations 

Presuppositions 

Process 

Standard 

Religion as a Life pro- 
ceeding from Faith. .. .12-14 

The Christian as distin- 
guished from Natural 
Revelation 15-20 



Question. 

Holy Scripture as the 
Record of Revelation. .21-27 

Relation of Reason to 
Revelation 28-32 

Church Authority and 
Articles of Faith 33-35 

Clearness and Complete- 
ness of Scripture 36 

Authority of Scripture. . .37, 38 

Christian Experience and 
Scripture 39 

The Three Requisites of 
a Theologian 40 



CHAPTER II, 
The Being and Attributes of God 

Question 

What is implied in Re- 
ligion 



-Pages 18-41. 



with 



i-S 
6 



7 
11 



Errors conflicting 
this conception 

Personality and Tri-per 
sonality 

Definition of God 

Name and Names of God. 12-16 

Attributes of God i7~79 

Definition, 17-20; how 
idea gained, 21, 22; 
Classification, 23, 24; 
Absolute Attributes — 
Independence, Simplic- 
ity, Infinity, Immortal- 
ity, 25-44; Relative At- 
tributes — Perfections of 
Life, 46; of Intellect 
( Omniscience, Wis- 

dom), 47-52; of Will — 
What is God's Will, 



how determined, how 
characterized, distin- 

guished into Natural 
and Free, Efficacious 
and Inefficacious, of 
Sign and of Purpose, 
Revealed and Secret, 
Absolute and Condi- 
tioned, Absolute and 
Ordinate, Antecedent 
and Consequent, 47-57 ; 
Omnipotence, 58-61 ; 

Justice, 62-68; Truth, 
69 ; Goodness, 70 ; Lo /e : 
(a) Benevolence, (b) 
Beneficence, (c) Com- 
placency, 71, 72; Grace, 
73-76; Mercy, 77; Long- 
suffering, 78; Holiness. 
79. 



CHAPTER III. 
The Trinity. — Pages 42-60. 

Question. Question. 

Peculiar to New Testa- Not purely speculative.... 7 

ment 1-3 Three Fundamental Prop- 
Suggested in Old Testa- ositions 8 

ment 4 I. The Unity of God 9- 14 

Terminology 5,6 II. The Threeness of God. 14-30 

597 



598 



ANALYSIS. 



CHAPTER III 

Question, 
(a) Divinity of Each 
Person proved frcm his 
having the Names, Attri- 
butes, Works and Wor- 
ship of God, 14-29; (b) 
Co-ordination of the 
Three in same passage, 
30. 

III. The Persons distin- 
guished 31 

The Holy Ghost a Person, 
not an Energy 32 

Explanation of the scien- 



(Continued). 

Question. 
tific formulation of the 
dogma : "Substance and 
"Essence," "Person," 
"Hypostasis," "Personal 
Acts," "Personal Pecu- 
liarities," "Generation," 
"Filiation," "Spira- 

tion," "the Double Pro- 
cession," Order of Per- 
sons, External Acts... .33-64 

Old Testament Sugges- 
tions 65 

Philosophical Arguments. 66 



CHAPTER IV. 
Creation. — Pages 60-67. 

Question. 



Relation to what precedes 1 

Definition 2 

Source of doctrine 3 

Mosaic account 4 

Trinitarian relations 5-7 

Origin of purpose 8 

Immediate and Mediate.. 9,10 
Relations to Eternity and 



Question. 

Time 11, 12 

How effected 13 

Result 14 

Design 15-24 

End 25-29 

Cautions concerning al- 
leged conflict between 
Science and Revelation. 30-36 



CHAPTER V. 
Providence. — Pages 67-79 

Question. 



Definition I 

Relation to Creation 2 

Against what Errorists to 

be maintained 3 

Proofs 4,5 

Its Objects 6,7 

Practical Application of 
its Universality and 

Particularity 8-12 

The Three Acts of Prov- 
idence: 13-23 

1. Foreknowledge; 2. 
Predetermination; 3. 

Execution by: (a) Pre- 
servation; (b) Concur- 
rence; (c) Govern- 
ment (by Permission, 
Hindrance, Direction). 

Special Providence 24 



Question. 

Ordinary and Extraordin- 
ary Providence 25-38 

"Law of Nature' 26,27 

God not bound to His own 
laws 28 

The doctrine of Miracles: 
Miracle defined, Ground 
of its possibility, Ground 
of its necessity, Proof of 
its reality, Standpoints 
of its opponents, coun- 
terfeits, evidential value, 
distinctions, two classes 
of Miracles: (a) of Na- 
ture; (b) of Grace; 
Practical Application: 
the correct estimate of 
Second Causes 29-79 



ANALYSIS. 

CHAPTER VI. 
Angels. — Pages 80-88. 

Question. 

Place and Estimate of the . voked, 23-25; Orders, 

doctrine 1-3 26 27; Figurative 

Definition 4-7 Names, 28. 

Creation Attributes, The Bad Angels: Prob- 

Number 8-10. lems concerning their 

States 11,12 pall, 29-33; Its order, 

The Good Angels: Impec- 34; Its effect on their 

cability, 13, 14; Ground endowments, 35; chang- 

of Perseverance. 15; ed relation towards 

Knowledge, 16; Power, God, 36, 37; their fu- 

17; Works, 18; Guard- ture, 38, 39; How now 

ian Angels, 19; Their occupied, 40; Demonia- 

service for the godly, cal Possession, 41. 
20-22; Not to be in- 



599 



CHAPTER VII. 



Man as Created. 

Question. 

States 1,2 

Place in Creation 3 

Two parts : Dichotomy 

vs. Trichotomy 4-14 

Soul or Spirit 15-17 

Unity of Race 18-21 

Origin of Soul : Pre-exist- 
ence, Creationism and 
Traducianfsm 22 

Image of God 23-27 



—Pages 88-100. 

Question. 

Its Constituents 28-31 

External Evidences of 

Image 32 

Was it essential or acci- 
dent 33 

Theorv of Superadded 

Gift' 34 

Natural or Supernatural.. 35 

Importance of doctrine... 36 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SlN.- 



-Pages 1 



Question. 

Definition 1-4 

Cause and Kinds 5,6 

Original Si": Confession- 
al statement 7 ; Begin- 
ning, 8; Origin and Ap- 
plication of term, 9, 10; 
the First Sin and its 
significance, 11-14; Con- 
sequences of Fall, 15; 
Punishments, 16-20; 

Extent of consequences, 
21-24; Immediate and 
Mediate Imputation, 25, 
26; Negative and Posi- 
;ive Elements, 27-29; 



A 



01-114. 

Universality of Original 
Sin, 30-33 ; Effects on 
Man's Will, 34; Error 
of Flacius, 35-38; Rel- 
ative Power, 39; Dura- 
tion, 40-42 ; Fruits, 

43, 44- 

dual Sins: Definition, 

45, 46; -Causes, 47; 
Temptations, 48, 49; 
Inner Actions, 50; Ef- 
fects, 51; Classification, 
52-56; Sin against the 
Holy Ghost, 57-61. 



600 ANALYSIS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
The Grace of God Towards Fallen Men. — Pages 114-119. 

Question. Question. 

The State in which Grace Why many are lost 16 

finds man 1-3 Meaning of God's will... 17, 18 

Not required by any con- Factors of the Plan of 

sideration of Justice.... 4-7 Redemption 20 

Motive 8,9 Where Predestination is 

Universality of Grace. .. .10-14 to be treated 21-23. 

Contents of God's Will... 15 

CHAPTER X. 
The Preparation of Redemption. — Pages 119-121. 

Question. Question. 

When announced 1 contrasted 6 

Two-fold Preparation.... 2-$ Salvability of those who 

Heathenism and Judaism lived before Christ..,.. 7-8 



CHAPTER XI. 



The Person of Ch 

Question. 

Meaning of "Christ"' 1-6 

Topics included 7 

Chalcedon Symbol 8 

The Divinity of Christ... 9 
The Humanity of Christ.. 10 
Truth of the Humanity. .11-13 
Completeness of the Hu- 
manity 14, 15 

Unity of Person 16, 17 

Relation of Person and 

Nature 18, 19 

Double Generation 20 

Incarnation 21, 22 



rist. — Pages 122-140. 

Question- 
Consubstantiality of Hu- 
manity 23 

Sinlessness of Humanity. 24, 25 

Personal Union 29, 30 

Attributes of Union 31,32 

Communion of Natures. .33, 34 
Personal Propositions.... 35. 
Communicatio Idiomat- 
um: Genus Idiomati- 
cum 37-42 ; Genus Ma- 
jestaticum, 43-49 ; Gen- 
us Apotelesmaticum, 50- 
53 ; Estimate of doc- 
trine, 54-55. 



CHAPTER XII. 
States of Christ. — Pages 141-158. 

Question. 



Basis of Distinction 1,2 

Humiliation: Pertaining 
to which nature, 3, 6; 
not synonymous with 
Incarnation, 4, 5 ; not a 
hiding, 7 ; the sedes doc- 
trinae, 8 ; Explanation, 
clause by clause of Phil. 
2:5-11, 9-16; Definition, 
17-19; what attributes) 
conspicuously involved, 
20; duration, 21; stages, 



or grades, viz., concep- 
tion and birth, circum- 
cision, childhood, visible 
life among men, passion, 
death, burial, 22-35. 
Exaltation: Definition, 36,. 
2,7 ; when did it begin, 
38, 39; the sedes doc- 
trinae, 40-42 ; Confes- 
sional statement, 43 ;. 
Christ preaching to the 
spirits, not a preaching. 



ANALYSIS. 



60 1 



CHAPTER XII 

of the Gospel, 44, 45 ; 
why to antediluvians, 
46 ; was there a preach- 
ing to Old Testament 
saints, 47; Resurrection, 
50-52 ; Characteristics of 
C h r i s t's resurrected 
body, 53-57; place of 



(Continued). 

doctrine of Resurrection 
in preaching of the 
Apostles, 58; its place in 
Apologetics, 59; the As- 
cension, 60-64; the Ses- 
sion at the Right Hand 
of God, 65-69. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
The Offices of Christ — Christ as Prophet. — Pages 159-166. 



Question. 
Relation to what precedes I 
Three functions of Medi- 
atorial Office 2,3 

Meaning of "Prophet''... 4 
Prophetic Office defined 

and explained 5,6 

Revelations before the In- 
carnation 7,8 

Christ's Preaching cf the 
Law 9-16 



Question. 

Christ's Preaching of the 
Gospel 17 

How Prophetic Office is 
continued; its two 
stages 18, 19 

Progress in Christ's teach- 
ing 20 

Miracles as seals of the 
Prophetic Office 21-23 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Christ as Priest. 



Defined 

According to which na- 
ture 

Old Testament types 

The two functions of the 
Priesthood : 1. Meaning 
of Satisfaction; to 
whom made ; Vicarious 
Satisfaction no injus- 
tice ; Attributes of God 
vindicated; Personal 
Objects of the Satisfac- 
tion ; Extent of the 
Atonement; Real Ob- 
jects; from what has the 
Satisfaction redeemed; 
by what means was it af- 



Question. 
I 



2 
3 



—Pages 167-179. 

Question, 
forded; the Active and 
the Passive Obedience; 
difference between the 
sacrifice of Christ and 
Old Testament sacri- 
fices ; when made ; does 
the Resurrection belong 

to the Satisfaction 4-29 

2. The Intercession; 
its stages and objects; 
its modes ; its ground ; 
its reality; its duration. 30-37 

Moral Theories of Atone- 
ment criticised 38, 39 

Refutation of the use of 
chief proof-texts ap- 
pealed to. 40 



Definition 
Stages . . 
Spheres . 



CHAPTER XV. 
Christ as King. — 179-183. 

Question. Question. 

1,2 Kingdom of Power 5-8 

3 Kingdom of Grace 9-14 

4 Kingdom of Glory 15-18 



602 



ANALYSIS. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
The Mission of the Holy Ghost. — Pages 183-186. 



Question. 

Place of doctrine 1,2 

Different Modes and De- 
grees of Presence 3,4 

Foundation of Mission... 5 



Question. 

Pentecostal 



Relation to 

Miracle 

Meaning of "Not yet giv 

en" (John 7:39) 

Confessional statement. . 



7 
8 



CHAPTER XVII. 
Faith in Christ. — Pages 186-205. 

Question. 



Instrument by which 
Christ's work is applied 

Confessional statement... 

Distinctions between: (a) 
Subjective and Cbjec- 
tive; (b) Human and 
Divine; (c) Direct and 
Discursive; (d) As an 
act and as a habit; (e) 
Explicit and Implicit; 
(f) Crude and Ener- 
gized # . 3 

Distinction of preposi- 
tions "propter" and 
"per" 

In what does the value of 
faith lie 

Various objects of faith 
enumerated, as distin- 
guished from the proper 
object here required. . .13-18 

General and special faith 
contrasted 19 

The elements of faith: 
Knowledge, Assent, 
Confidence 20-24 

Characteristics of Confi- 
dence — refers to a pres- 



10 



IT 



12 



Question. 

ent good, a personal 
good, and that good as 

a means to an end 25 

How distinguished from 

Hope 26 

Scriptural argument for 
Confidence as belonging 

to Faith 27 

The Augustinian formula : 
Credere Deum, Deo, in 

Deum 28 

Degrees of faith, and re- 
lation to efficacy 29,30 

Double office of faith.... 31 
Relation to the New Life 32-34 
Faith may be lost; and if 
so, may be again recov- 
ered 36,37 

Assurance of Faith 38-40 

Assurance dependent upon 
clearness of apprehen- 
sion of the Gospel 41,42 

Scriptural examples 43 

The Witness of the Spirit 44-46 
Faith and self-examin- 
ation 47-50 

Is salvation ever possible 
without faith 51 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
Justification. — Pages 206-215 

Question. 



Various meanings I 

Proofs of Forensic sense 

at this place 2 

Definition 3,4 

What sins not imputed... 5 
What righteousness of 

Christ imputed 6 

Meaning of "impute" 7-9 



Question. 

Ground of imputation.... 10 
In what sense is faith im- 
puted (Rom. 4:5) 11,12 

Denial of man's agency. .. 13 
Justification not an inter- 
nal work 14, 15 

Faith does not justify as 
a root 16 



ANALYSIS. 



603 



CHAPTER XVIII (Continued), 



Question. 

Importance of the Exclu- 
sive Particles 17-20 

James 2 : 21-24 21 



Question. 
No degrees of Justifica- 
tion 22-24 



CHAPTER XIX. 
The Gospel Call. — Pages 215-221. 



Question. 

The order of Salvation... 1-4 

Definition 5 

Two elements 6 

Is there a double word... 7 
Explanation of difference 

in results 8, 9 

Rom. 8: 28 10 

Attributes of Call 11 



Question. 

Subjects, Objects 12,13 

Relation of Law and Gos- 
pel to Call 14 

Inequalities 15-17 

Preparatory invitations... r8 
Call under the Old Testa- 
ment 19, 20 



CHAPTER XX. 
Illumination. — Pages 222-229. 



Question. 

Condition of Man to 

whom the Call comes. . 1-7 

Definition 8 

Confessional statements.. 9 

Scripture Proofs 10 

Means 11 



Question. 
Is there ever Immediate 

Illumination 12,13 

Forms 14 

Legal and evangelical. .. .15-17 

Gradual 18-21 

Different senses of the 

Term 22 



CHAPTER XXI. 
Regeneration. — Pages 229-244. 



Question. 

... i-3 



Definition 

Confessional statement. . . 

Scripture Proofs of Man's 
Inability 

Illustrations given in the 
Confessions 

The question of Respon- 
sibility 

In what respect is man's 
will free 8,9 

How is Regeneration 
wrought 10 

Law, Gospel and Sacra- 
ments, in their relation 
to Regeneration 11,12 



Question. 
Substantial or Accidental; 
Instantaneous or Grad- 
ual 13. 14 

Subjects — Infant Faith. . . 15-18 
Distinctions and Synon- 
yms 20-23 

Repentance 24-31 

Conversion : Distinguish- 
ed from Regeneration; 
can man co-operate ; is 
the will passive; no en- 
couragement of secur- 
ity. Errors of Pelagian- 
ism, Semi-Pelagianism, 
Synergism, Enthusiasm. 32-38 



604 ANALYSIS. 

CHAPTER XXII. 
The Mystical Union. — Pages 244-247. 

Question. Question. 

Defined I Treatment by Apostles... 5 

What it means 2 Practical Application 6 

Confessional treatment... 3 Caution 7 

Luther's explanation 4 



CHAPTER XXIII, 
Renovation. — Pages 247-265. 



Question. 

• • i-3 
4 
5 



Definition 

Distinctions 

Two sides 

Condition of "the Old 
Man" 6,7 

As related to various 
parts of our nature 8 

Its Active Principle 9 

The Divine Side 10 

The Means : Word and 
Sacraments according, 
each, to its peculiar 
sphere ; Modes in which 
the Means are applied. .11-13 

The Human Side 14 

Prayer and Renovation.. .15-17 



Question. 

Gradual 18 

Perfection and Perfec- 
tionism 19-22 

Office of Good Works... .23, 24 

How Good Works are 
produced 25-27 

Good Works defined, and 
the definition explained 
clause by clause: 
"Acts," "Free," "the 
Law, the standard," 
"the light in which Law 
is seen" "the motive". .28-35 

In what sense any works 
are good 36-38 

The question of Rewards. 39-44 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
The Word as the Means of Grace 

Question. 
Reference to previous 



statements 

Is the doctrine of Means 
a limitation of God's 



sovereignty 



Are Means ever dispens- 
ed with 

Relative position of the 
Word and the Sacra- 
ments 4, 

What is the Word 

The Holy Scriptures as 
the Record 

In what senses are they 
inspired; (a) Through 
activity of the Holy 
Spirit, in and through 
the writers; (b) 
through His activity in 
preserving and gather- 
ing them into one vol- 



Pages 265-298. 

Question, 
ume so that one organ- 

1 ism is the result; (c) 
through the presence 
and activity of the Holy 

2 Spirit in the communion 
of believers in its rela- 

3 tion to Holy Scripture; 
(d) through His pres- 
ence and activity in the 

5 truth which they con- 

6 tain even when its form 
is changed; (e) through 

7 the Personality of Christ 
in the Word; (f) 
through the presence 
and activity of the Holy 
Spirit whenever and 
wherever the Word is 
now used 8 

The Supreme Test of 
Holy Scripture 9-12 



ANALYSIS. 



605 



CHAPTER XXIV (Continued). 

Question. 



Proper Place of Literary- 
historical criticism 13-16 

Estimate of the human 
factor 17, 18 

Organic relation of parts. 19-21 

No distinction between 
Inner and Outward 
Word 22,23 

Scripture more than a 
"'directory" 24 

Spirit and Word insepa- 
rable 25 

Efficacy of Word 26 



Question. 

Explanation of Prayer for 
the Spirit as interpreter 27 

The Church as the instru- 
mentality for communi- 
cating the Word 28 

The Preached Word..... 30 

The Read Word ..31,32 

Preaching as a Means of 
Grace . ... ".' 33-3^ 

Antithesis of the Roman 
Catholic Church 37 

Difference of the Reform- 
ed view 38 



CHAPTER XXV. 



The Law and the 

Question. 

Division of the Word.... 1 

Distinction explained 2-5 

Different senses of both 

terms 6 

Divisions of the Law 7 

The Moral Law : Defined, 
distinguished, Office of 
the Natural Law, the 
Revealed Moral Law, 
where found, where re- 
peated, test as to wheth- 
er a precept belong to 
Moral Law, an organic 
whole, its sphere, nature 
of the obedience it de- 
mands, result of its 
preaching, because it 



Gospel. — Pages 298-310. 

Question, 
cannot justify is it use- 
less, the three uses of 
the Law, how should it 
be preached 8-27 

Relation of Forensic and 
Ceremonial Laws to the 
Moral 28-31 

The Ceremonial Law: its 
contents, object, abro- 
gation ..32-34 

Definition of Gospel .35-37 

The Gospel not a New 
Law 38 

In what Law and Gospel 
differ and in what they 
coincide .39, 40 



CHAPTER XXVI. 
The Sacraments. — Pages 311-324. 

Question. Question. 

Two modes of applying The three essentials of a - 

the Gospel 1,2 Sacrament 14 

Definition of Sacrament.. 3,4 Importance of the Sacra- 
Origin and history of mental "word" 15,16 

term .....:.. 5-8 Confirmation and Ordina- 

Peculiar office of a Sacra- tion not Sacraments.... 17 

ment . .. 9-1I Not everything that God 

Whose act is the Sacra- has instituted and com- 
ment 12 manded, a Sacrament.. 19 

How a Sacrament differs When does the Sacrament 

from a sacrifice........ 13 exist .., 20 



6o6 



ANALYSIS. 



CHAPTER XX\I (Continued). 



Question. 

Where doe? the right to 
administer the sacra- 
ments belong 21,22 

Upon what does their effi- 
cacy depend 23-26 

In what sense are they 
necessary 27 

What is their chief pur- 



Question, 
pose .28-30 

What are their secondary 
ends 31 

The question as to Old 
Testament Sacraments. 32 

The differences between 
Baptism and the Lord's 
Supper 33 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
Holy Baptism. — Pages 325-342. 



Question. 

Definition 1,2 

Institution 3-5 

Meaning of formula 6, 7 

Who baptizes 8 

The Element 9-14 

The Heavenly Gift 15 

The Minister ...16-21 

Subjects 22-25 



Question. 

Effect 26,27 

Relation to Faith 28-30 

Perpetuity 3i>32 

Repetition 33 

Relation of Confirmation. 34 

Necessity 35-39 

Accidentals 40 



CHAPTER 
The Holy Supper. 

Question. 
Definition and sedes doc- 

trinae 1, 2 

Elements 3 

Heavenly Gift 4 

Literal interpretation of 

words 5-12 

Opposing arguments an- 
swered 13-15 

Sacramental Presence.... 16 

Sacramental Union 17-22 

Sacramental Eating 23-26 

Sacramental Promise 27-30 

Sacrament as a Memorial 31-34 

Not a sacrifice 35 

Sacrificial side 36 



XXVIII. 
—Pages 342-369. 

Question. 

Ministers 37, 38 

Administration in both 

kinds 39, 40 

To whom to be admin- 
istered 41-46 

Sacrament as a commun- 
ion 47,48 

Prophetical side 41 

Sacrament as an epitome 

of doctrine 5° 

Consecration 52 

Distribution 53 

Reception 54 

How often 55, 56 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
The Church. — Pages 369-419 

Question. 



Relation to what precedes 



Ongir 



1-3 
4 

Definition 5"7 

Organic stmcture 8-10 

Attributes 11-19 



Question. 
Intermingling with others 20, 22 

Visible and Invisible 22 

Marks 23-30 

Relation of Attributes and 
Marks 31 



ANALYSIS. 



607 



CHAPTER XXIX (Continued), 



Question. 

Other Marks rejected... .32, 33 

Membership 34 

No salvation except 

through Church 35-3$ 

No Platonic State 37 

The Communion of 

Saints 40-46 

The Lutheran, as a true 

Church 47-52 

Function and Authority. .53-57 



Question. 
External Organization. . .58, 59 

Church Traditions 60-66 

Open Questions 67 

Errors conflicting with 
doctrine of the Church 
— Heresy, Schism, Sec- 
tarianism, Syncretism, 

Secularism, etc 68-79 

Leading types of doctrine 
and life 80 



CHAPTER XXX. 
The Ministry. — Pages 419-446. 



Question. 

Definition 1,2 

Permanent and Tempo- 
rary Elements 3-5 

All pastors bishops 6-9 

The Ministry and the 

Priesthood 10-13 

The Call to the Ministry.. 14-30 
Immediate and Medi- 
ate Call distinguished; 
Mode of Mediate Call ; 
Preparatory factors ; 
"Call' in special sense; 
Part of the Ministry 
ana Laity in giving 
Call; Lay preaching; 
Limits of Ministry as 
determined by Call. 

Ordination: 31-40 

Definition ; Not abso- 
lutely necessary; Ordin- 
ary form ; Lutheran es- 
timate of; Who is to 



Question, 
ordain ; Congregational 
or Synodical Ordina- 
tion; Reordination ; Or- 
dination sine titulo. 

Are there grades 41 

Power of Ministers 4-2-47 

Preaching as a function of 

the Ministry 48, 49 

Administration of Sacra- 
ments of the Ministry. . 50 
Administration of Power 

of Keys 51-56 

Confession and Abso- 
lution, private and pub- 
lic, Part of Ministry in 
Discipline. 
External duties of Min- 
istry 57 

Deacons and Deaconesses 58, 59 
The End of the Mii.istry. 60 
Comfort with respect to 
its duties 61 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
The Church's Confessions. — Pages 446-456. 



Question. 

Necessity 1-4 

Precise Function 5, 6 

Nature of Test 7 

Confessional obligation 

analyzed 8 

Precautions to be ob- 



Question. 
served 9, 10 

The Lutheran Confessions 

classified 11 

Abuse of Confessions.... 12 

Objections answered 13,14 

Rules for controversies. . .15-ij 



6o8 



ANALYSIS. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
Church Discipline. — Pages 457-463. 

Question 



The two spheres 1,2 

The Object 3,4 

Indispensable .5-7 

Offences noticed 8 

Grades 9 



Question. 
Divinely-prescribed order. 10-13 

Excommunication 14-18 

Secret sins 19 

Discipline of Pastors 21 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
The Christian Family. — Pages 464-472 

Question. 



Place of Family 1-4 

Marriage with unbelievers 5,6 
Meaning of Marriage Cer- 
emony 7 

Marriage indissoluble 8 

When is Divorce permis- 
sible 9 

Precautions to be observ- 
ed in admitting persons 



Question. 

to ceremony 10-14 

Relation of Family to oth- 
er institutions 15 

Celibacy 16, 17 

Family as a Religious 

Center 18, 19 

Education and Schools. . .20-22 
Summary 23 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 
The State. — Pages 472-485 

Question. 



Place of State 1-3 

War 4 

Oaths 5 

Church and State 6-9 

Limitations of power of 
the people and ma- 
jorities 10-13 

The Christian and Politi- 
cal Wrongs 14 

The Church and Political 



Question. 

Wrongs 15 

Responsibility of one 
State for the wrongs of 
another 16 

The Sphere of Religious 
Liberty 17-20 

National Life in the ser- 
vice of the Kingdom of 
God 21 



CHAPTER XXXV. 
Life after Death. — Pages 485-493. 

Question. 

The Goal of Revelation.. 1 What they carry with 

Definition of Death 2 them; A Provisional 

What is peculiar to man's State; No Purgatory, 

death 3,4 neither Repentance nor 

Estimate of arguments Unconsciousness after 

for the Immortality of Death taught in Holy 

the soul 5-7 Scripture, Distinction 

Old Testament doctrine between State after 

concerning it 8 Death, and that which 

Causes, Extent and Of- follows the General 

fices of Death 9-12 Judgment; Temporal 

State of Souls after death. 13-20 Standards inadmissible. 



ANALYSIS. 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 



609 



The Resurrection cf the Body. 

Question. 
Definition and Scriptural 

Grounds 1-3 

Old Testament Testimony- 
estimated 4 

Arguments from Nature 

estimated 5 

Misinterpretation of 6 

Source of 7 

Agents, Means, Subjects.. 8-10 



494-504. 



Pages w 

Question. 

The Resurrection of the 
Ungodly 11 

Nature of the Resurrec- 
tion Body 12-20 

The Resurrection not a 
Process 21 

How to treat difficulties 
concerning it 22 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 
The Return of Christ. — Pages 504-517. 

Question. Question. 

Relation to the Resurrec- Decline and Oppression 

tion 1,2 of Church, including the 

The Two States cf the career of Antichrist; 

Church 3-5 4. Extraordinary His- 

The two Spates of Crea- torical Events ; 5. Sn- 

tion 6 pernatural Material 

The Time 7 Phenomena. 

The Signs 9-19 The Chiliastic Interpre- 

1. Universal Preach- tation examined 20,21 

ing of the Gospel ; 2. Characteristics of the Sec- 
Conversion of Israel ; 3. ond Coming 22 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 



The General Judg 

Question. 

Scriptural and Confes- 
sional Declarations 1 

Christ as Judge 2-6 

In what sense Christians 
will be judges 7 

Office of angels in the 
Judgment 8 

Who are to be judged.... 9,10 

What will be judged 11 

Non propter, sed secun- 
dum opera 12, 13 

The Sins of the Godly at 
the Judgment 14, 15 

The Norm of the Judg- 
ment: the Gospel for 
believers, the Law for 
unbelievers 16, 17 

The Examination and 
"Books" 18-20 



ment— Pages S l 7S35- 

Question. 

Doctrine of Rewards to 
be guarded 21, 22 

Difference in Rewards.... 23 

Salvation "without re- 
ward" 24 

Incompleteness of Record 
at death 25 

Degrees of Punishment 
and Incompleteness of 
Record of Wicked at 
death 26,27 

No third class 28 

The Sentence 29 

Events succeeding Judg- 
ment, parti :ularly End 
of World, Final Confla- 
gration and Change of 
Heaven and Earth 30-35 



6io 



ANALYSIS. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Eternal Death. — Pages 535-540. 

Question. Question. 
Defined I Classification of punish- 
Both Place and State 2 ments 6 

Important distinction 3 Punishments, without 

Literal or figurative end ; doctrine stated, 
"Fire" 4 and objections an- 
swered 7-9 

CHAPTER XL. 



Eternal Life. — Pages 540-552. 



Question. 

Defined I 

Its three elements: 1. 
Complete Deliverance; 
2. Perfection of the 
work of Grace ; 3. Re- 
alization of the possibil- 
ities before Adam and 
their transcendence 2-5 

"Salvation" and "Glory" 



Question, 
distinguished; the for- 
mer for the individual ; 
the latter Tor the com- 
munity of "the Blessed" 6-8 

The Beatific Vision: its 
effects and attendants.. 9-13 

The Community of the 
BlesseJ 14-16 

The Home of the Blessed 17-19 



CHAPTER XLI. 
The Divine Purpose as Interpreted by Its Contents and 



Results. — Pages 552-580. 

Question. Question. 

Order of Treatment 1 Factors to be accounted 

Predestination defined, in constructing the doc- 

and definition explain- trine 21 

ed clause by clause 2-20 Faith sometimes a condi- 

Dififerent senses of tion, sometimes a re- 
term, 'Out of grace," suit 22 

"Out of Human Race," Important caution con- 

''Each Individual," Re- cerning Faith 23 

lation of Foreknowl- The Elect 24-27 

edge, In what senses Are all who believe 

"Absolute" and "Condi- elect; can the elect fall; 

tioral," Condition pre- can one know whether 

supposed in Decree, "In he be elect. 

Christ," Is Faith a cause The Non-elect 28-33, 

of Election, Parallel of Meaning of "Repro- 

Justificatjon. bation," Why Predestin- 

The Fcur and the Eight ation is particular. 



ANALYSIS. 



6n 



CHAPTER XLI (Continued) 

Question. 



Rom. 9: 15 sqq. ex- 
plained. 

The doctrine of Predes- 
tination not to be ig- 
nored 34,35 

How to be guarded 36 

Excursus I. 
"Harmony of the 



Question. 
Four Evangelists," by 
Chemnitz, Lyser and 
Gerhard, on Matthew 

22: 14 572-576 

Excursus II. 

Luther on Specula- 
tions Concerning Pre- 
destination 576-580 



APPENDIX. 

On th^ Spiritual Priesthood of Believers. 
Philip J. Spener 



By Dr. 
.Pages 58i-595 



INDEX I. 



A 

Abraham, Faith of, 121, 344. 

Absolute Decree, 557 sq. ; 
Will, 34 sq. 

Absolution the Gospel indi- 
vidualized, 311, 399, 442; 
sometimes classed with Sa- 
craments, 312; may be given 
by a layman, 331 ; its use be- 
fore the Lord's Supper, 363 ; 
meaning of the term "Pri- 
vate Absolution," 440 sq. ; 
advantage of, 443. 

Act, defined, 286; simple, of 
God, 30. 

Action, Inner, in; Sacramen- 
tal, 311, 3\7, 319. 358, 359- 

Active Obedience, 173. 

Actual Sin, no sq. 

Adam, knowledge of, 97; pec- 
cability of, 98; sin of. 101 
sq., 104 sq., 107; possibilities 
before Adam, at creation, 
542 sq. 

Adaptation of creatures (Tel- 
eology) a proof of Provi- 
dence, 68. 

Adiaphora, 406 sq., 412, 420 
sq., 436 sq. 

Admonition, private, 460. 

Advent, repetition of, 290. 

Afflictions, signs of God's 
love, 251 ; school of, 17. 

Agnosticism, 19. 

America, Church in, 420, 478; 
the Lutheran Confessions 
in, 454 sq. 

Amissibility of faith, 200; of 
regeneration, 237. 

Analogy of faith, 10, 283. 

Angel of the Lord, 85. 

Angels, Doctrine of. Why less 
prominent since the Refor- 
mation, 80; defined, 20, 80; 
bodies of, 81, 125 ; creation 
of, 81 ; attributes of, 81 ; 



613 



states of 81 sq. ; the Good, 
82; knowledge, power, 
works, 83 ; service, 84 ; invo- 
cation 47, 84 sq. ; orders of, 
85; fall of. 86 sq. ; the Bad, 
87 sq. ; angels at Resurrec- 
tion, 498; at Judgment, 521. 

Anhypostasia of Christ's hu- 
manit} 7 , 127. 

Annihilation 533 sq. 

Antecedent Will, 35. 

Antediluvians, preaching to 
the, 152. 

Anthony, Legend of, 261. 

Anthropomorphism, 19. 

Antichrist, the culmination of 
secularism in the Church, 
417 ; concentration of the 
persecuting spirit, 511; per- 
sonal, 512; misapplications 
of the doctrine, 512 sq. ; 
marks of, 513; is the Pope 
Antichrist? 513 sq. 

Apocrypha, why rejected, 273. 

Apollinaris, error of, 126. 

Apologetics, Christ's Resur- 
rection in. 155 sq. 

Apostasy, the great, 510. 

Apostles, in what sense with- 
out successors, 420. 

Apostolic Succession, 412, 
420. 

Apostolicity, 277- 

Apotelesmatic Genus, 138. 

Architect, the Holy Spirit as, 
270. 

Articles of Faith. 12; "Pure" 
and "Mixed," 496. 

Ascension of Christ, angels 
at, 84; argument from, 123; 
defined and interpreted, 156 
sq. ; the Ascension and the 
gift of the Holy Spirit, 184; 
bearing on doctrine of the 
Lord's Supper, 346 sq. 

Aseity of God, 24. 



614 



INDEX I. 



Assent, an element of faith, 

194. 
Assurance of Faith, 201 sq., 
204. 

Atheism, 19, 77, 467 sq ., 483. 

Atonement, moral theories of, 
178. 

Atrophy, spiritual, 257. 

Attributes of God, 20, 23 sqq., 
68; communicated to Christ's 
human nature, 136 sqq. ; what 
attributes most prominent in 
Redemption, 170; of Angels, 
81; of Church, 374 sq. 505; 
of Resurrection Body, 501 
sq. 

Augsburg Confession, author- 
ity of, 448, 450; not a final 
definition of the faith, 450; 
characterized, 451, 452. 

Augustine, 15. 

Auricular Confession, 442. 

Autochthones, 93. 

B 

Baptism, 325-342; Baptism and 
Regeneration, 233 sqq., 335; 
Baptism and Repentance, 
240 sq. ; Baptism and Re- 
newal, 251 ; Baptism as a 
Sacrament, 311 sqq.; points 
of difference from the Lord's 
Supper, 324; defined, 325; 
institution of, 325 ; John's 
Baptism, 325 sq. ; Baptism 
"in" and "into the name," 
327 ; God's act, 327 ; the Ele- 
ment, 327 sqq. ; mode of, 328 
sq. ; the Heavenly Gift, 329; 
minister of 318, 329 sqq. ; 
validity of, 330 ; why not ad- 
ministered by Christ, 331 ; 
Lay Baptism, 318, 331 ; In- 
fant Baptism, 332 sqq. ; Bap- 
tism and Salvation, 335; 
Baptism and Faith, 335 sqq. ; 
how the doctrine is to be 
guarded, 337 sq. ; perman- 
ency of its effects, 338; how 
to be preached, 338 sqq. ; can- 
not be repeated, 339 sq. ; 
Baptism arid Confirmation, 



340; necessity of, 324, 340 
sq. ; administration of, 341 ; 
as testimony of community 
thought, 396; foundation of 
the Spiritual Priesthood, 581. 

Bartholomew St., Massacre, 
402. 

Believers, children of, cove- 
nant relations of, 334 341. 

Bells, Church, Roman error, 

399- 

Beneficence, Benevolence, 

law of, 39. 
Bible, the Word of God, 283; 

can never be a Confession, 

447- 
Bibles, circulation of, 292. 
Biblical Theology, i, 2. 
Birth, man's, 70. 
Bishops, succession of, 386 

sq. ; same as Presbyters, 421 

sq. ; election of, 428 ; rulers 

as pro tempore b., 430, 477; 

ordination by, 433. 

Body, The, 89, 486; of First 
man, 97 ; Resurrection of, 
153, 494-504; Glorified, 153; 
Spiritual, 153, 347; Psychi- 
cal, 154; of Christ, 348; 
identity of, 500. 

Book of Life, 119, 527. 

Books, at General Judgment, 
527 sq. 

Bread, in Lord's Supper, 342 
sqq. 

Burial of Christ, 149. 



Call, The Gospel, 116 sq., 215- 
221, 572-576; to Ministry, 
330, 424-432; by the Church, 
404. 

Caesaro-Papacy, 476. 

Canon of Scripture, forma- 
tion of, 271. 

Capernaitic MonducatioNj 

353- 

Care of Souls, 311. 
Casualism, 69. 
Catechism, Large, 451 sq. 
Catechism, Small, 451 sq. 
Catechumens, instruction of, 



INDEX I. 



615 



481. 

Catholic, meaning of, 377. 

Catholics, salvability of, 400. 

Catholicity, of Church, 376 
sq. ; of Lutheran Church, 
398, 400 sq. 

Caucus Rule, 480. 

Central Doctrines, 419. 

Ceremonies, standard of, 38; 
without justifying power, 
220. See also Adiaphora. 

Certainty of Faith, 202. See 
also Assurance. 

Character, Christian, 251, 
256; of minister, 319; the 
so-called "Indelible," 431. 

Chastisements, 251. 

Children, gifts, 70; faith of, 
233 sqq., 333; sin of, 235; 
unbaptized, 341 ; children of 
unbelieving parents, 334, 341. 

Chiliasm defined and reject- 
ed, 515 sq. 

Christ, Person of, 122-140; 
Names, 122; Divine Nature, 
45 sqq. ; Human Nature, 124 
sq. ; Unity of Person, 126 
sqq. ; Sinlessness, 129 sq. ; In- 
carnation, 130, 141 sq. ; Com- 
munion of Natures, 132 sq. ; 
Divine Attributes exercised 
through Human Nature, 137 
sq. ; State of, 141-159; Hu- 
miliation, 141 sqq.; Kenosis, 
142 sqq.; Conception. 146; 
Passion, 146 sq. ; Death, 149; 
Burial, 159; Exaltation, 149 
sqq.; Descensus, 150; Resur- 
rection 152 sqq., 175 ; Glori- 
fied Body of, 153 sq. ; Ascen- 
sion, 156 sq. ; Session at 
Right Hand, 157 sq. Offices 
of: Prophet KQ-166; pro- 
gress in teaching, 165; 
Priest, 167-179; satisfaction, 
168 sqq. ; Obedience, 173 
sqq.: intercession, 175 sq. ; 
Faith in, 186-205 ; merits, 
117, 192, 204 sq., 209, 211 sq. ; 
righteousness. 208, 210, 214, 
263 ; Mystical Union with, 
244-247 ; Personality in the 
Word, 272; Preaching Christ, 



294 sq. >r preaching the suffer- 
ings of, 305 ; the Gospel a 
preaching of Christ, 309; 
Christ instituted the Sacra- 
ments, 311, 322, and adminis- 
ters them, 314; w'.y He did 
not baptize, 331 ; Christ and 
the Holy Supper, 342-369; 
Real Presence of Body, 348 
sqq.; Head of Church, 373; 
will raise the dead, 497; Re- 
turn of, 504-517; As Judge, 
518 sq. ; the "Book of Life," 
527; beatific sight of, 546; 
Election "in Christ " ,559 sq., 
561 sqq., 570, 578 sqq. 
Christianity, 6 sq. 

Church, The, 369-419; 
Church and Dogmas, 3; a 
witness, nut a judge, 12; 
Holy Spirit's use of Church 
as medium of inspiration, 
269 sq. ; instrumentality of 
Church in applying Word, 
290; when did it originate, 
370; definition of, 370 sqq.; 
wider and narrower sense of 
term, 372 ; attributes, 374 
sqq., 385, 401 ; unity, 374 sqq., 
385, 398; holiness, 376, 385; 
catholicity, 376; apostolicity, 
377; perpetuity. 377 sq. ; vi- 
cissitudes, 378; a mixed 
body, 378 sqq. ; visible and in- 
visible, 379 sqq. ; preaching as 
a mark of, 382 sq. ; Sacra- 
ments as marks 382, 384; 
Episcopal succession, no 
mark, 386 ; members of, 387 
sq. ; necessity of, 388 sq. ; no 
Platonic State, 393, 403; as 
Mother, 390; Church Spirit, 
393 ; Church and Sacra- 
ments,- 396, 403; "Represen- 
tative" Church, 408; cannot 
dispense with Ministry, 409; 
call of, 404, 425 sq. ; organi- 
zation, 405 ; traditions, cere- 
monies, constitution, 399, 
405 sqq.; fellowship, 411; 
Church Confessions, 446- 
456; Church Discipline, 445, 
457-463 ; Church's only pow- 



6i6 



INDEX I. 



er that of the Word, 462 sq. ; 
relation of family to Church, 
464 sqq. ; Church and State, 
475-485 ; Church in future 
life, 509 sq. ; Antichrist and 
the Church, 513. 

Church Year, 295 sq. 

Circumcisicn. 323, ^33^ 3&3< 
406. 

Circumscriptive Presence, 27. 

Citizen, the Christian as, 
481. 

Collects. 225, 258. 

communicatio idiomatum, 

133 sqq. 
Communion of Believers, 

Holy Soirit in, 269 sq., 295; 

of the Blessed, 547 sqq. 
Communion of Saints, 375, 

381, 388 sqq. 393 sq., 395-8, 

549- 
Communion, Lord's Supper 

as a, 363, 396 sq. 
Complacency, Love of, 40, 

118. 
Concomitance, Sacramental, 

360. 
Concupiscence, 106, 109. 
Concurrence, 73. 
Condemnations, Confessional, 

402 sq. 

Condition, No, in Predestin- 
ation, 557. 

Conditioned Will of God, 34. 

Confession and Confessions, 
4, 446-456 407, 409- 

Confession, Auricular, 442. 

Confession, Private, 440 sqq. 

Confidence, an element of 
Faith, 194 sqq. 

Confirmation, 316, 340. 

Congregations, Power of, 404; 
authority to ordain, 434. 

Conscience 260, 301. 

Consecration, in Lord's Sup- 
per, 317, 367. 

Consequent Will of God, 35. 

"CONSUBSTANTIAL," 124, I2 8, 

350. 

CONSUBSTANTIATION, 350. 

Contracts, , Confessions as, 
447, 449- 



Contrition, an element of Re- 
pentance, 240. 

Controversies, useless, 66; 
how to be decided, 455 sq. ; 
how to be estimated, 403; a 
model for necessary contro- 
versies, 456. 

Conversion, Man's part in, 
231 ; Conversion and Re- 
pentance, 241 ; Conversion 
and Regeneration, 241. See 
also Co-operation, Synergism. 

Convictions, how attained, 
456. 

Co-operating Grace, 41. 

Co-operation, Man's with God, 
231, 242, 244, 248, 252, 256. 

Corporations, Churches as, 

483. 
Cosmogonies, 60. 

Covenant, Children of, 334. 
Creation, Order of, 8, 60-67. 
Creationism, 94. 
Criticism, Literary-Historical, 
^274, 280 sq. 

Critics, Qualifications of, 274. 
Crucifix, 294. 
Cup, Denial of, 359. 

D 

Darwinism, 65, 92. 

Deacons, 444 sq. 

Deaconesses, 445. 

Death, Punishment of sin, 
103 ; forms of, 103, 485 ; Spir- 
itual, defined, 103 ; described, 
230 so. ; Temporal, defined, 
103, 485; processes of, 104; 
time of, 71 ; described, 485 
sq. ; causes of, 489 ; office of, 
489 sq. ; changed into bless- 
ing, 490 sq. ; state after 
death, 491 sqq. ; Eternal, 114, 

535-540- 
Definitions, 20, 384. 
Deism and Deists, 27, 68, 77. 
Demoniacal Possession, 88. 
Descensus, The, 150 sq. See 

also Preaching. 
Deterioration, Religious, 7. 
Devil, Devils, 86-88, 101, 489. 
Dichotomy. 89 sq. 
Didactic Use of Law, 305. 



INDEX I. 



617 



Difficulties in Holy Scrip- 
ture, n; concerning the Holy 
Supper 357 ; concerning the 
Resurrection, 504. 

Diocesan Episcopacy, legiti- 
mate, 422. 

Direct Faith, 189. 

Discursive Faith, 189. 

Distributive Justice, 38. 

Divorce, 466 sq., 488. 

Docetists, 125. 

Dogma, i, 2, 73, 188. 

Dogmas, History of, 2. 

Dogmatics, i, 4. 

Dominion, a feature of Image 
of God, 98. 

Donatists, 319, 390. 

Doubt, Theology of, 314. 



Eutychians, 131. 
''Evangelical Counsels/' 230. 
Evil, Origin of, 86; remedy of, 

481. 
Evolution, 92. 

Exaltation, State of, 144 sqq. 
Examination, for Ministry, 

429; at Judgment, 524, 527. 
"Exclusive Particles," 211. 
Excommunication, 459-563. 
Ex Opere Operato, 319, 408. 

Experience, Christian, 5, 12, 

15, 17, 278. 
Explicit Faith, 189. 
External Power, 437, 444. 
Extraordinary, Conversions, 

266; call to Ministry, 425; 

Providence, 76; Gifts, 421. 



"ECCLESIA PlANTANDA," 420. 

Education, Christian, 396, 471 
sq. ; of race, 120. 

Efficacy, of Faith, 234 ; of 
Word, 289; of Preaching, 
291 ; of Sacraments, 319 sq. 

"Efficacious Will/' 32. 

Election, 554 sqq. See also 
Predestination, Purpose. 

Elements, Sacramental, 315; 
in Baptism, 317. 

Elenchtical Use of Law, 
304 sq. 

Emblems, Sacraments not, 323. 

"Enhypostasia, 127. 

''Enthusiasm" (doctrine that 
the Hoy Spirit works out- 
side of Means of Grace), 
244, 271. 

Epicureans, 68. 

Episcopal Government, in 
Lutheran Church, 478. 

Errors, Doctrinal, 458. 

Essence, of God, 51, 53. 

Essential Attributes, 59. 

Eternal, meaning of, 535, 536, 
539 sq. 

Eternal Death, 535-540. 

Eternal Sin, 538. 

Eternity of God, 25. 

"FuAGGELION." 309. 

"Eudokia/ 115. 



Faith, the Christian, i, 5; 
Faith and Revelation, 5 ; An- 
alogy of, 10; Faith and 
Scripture, 11; Articles of, 
12; Rule of, 13, in Christ, 
186-205; kinds of Faith, 187; 
Subjective and Objective, 
187; Human, 187; Histori- 
cal, 188; Divine, 188; Di- 
rect and Discursive, 189; as 
a Habit and as Act, 189; 
Explicit, 189; Implicit, 190; 
Faith and love. 190; value 
of, 190 sq. ; objects of, 191 
sq. ; why it justifies, 192 sq. ; 
Acts of, 194; Elements of, 
194 sq. ; distinguished from 
Hope, 196; as Confidence, 
197; Degrees of, 198; Effi- 
cacy of, 198 ; Double Office, 
198 sq. ; Energy of, 199; 
Amissibility of, 200; Re- 
storal of, 201 ; Assurance of, 
201 sqq., 213; Highest 
Achievement of, 205 ; no 
salvation with Faith, 201 ; in 
what sense "imputed," 210; 
in what sense does Faith 
justify 210 sq. ; Meaning of 
formula "Faith alone justi- 
fies," 212 sqq. ; Faith wrought 
by the Holy Spirit, 233; In- 



6i8 



INDEX I. 



fant Faith, 235 sqq. ,333; Faith 
as an element of Repentance, 
240 ; Regeneration, the giv- 
ing of Faith, 241 ; Prayer, 
the voice of Faith, 252; Of- 
fice of Sacraments with re- 
spect to Faith, 314, 321 ; Ef- 
ficacy of Sacraments not de- 
pendent on Faith, 320; Rela- 
tion of Faith to Baptism, 
335 sqq. ; Relation to Lord's 
Supper, 352, 361; Unity _ of 
Church a unity in Faith, 
374, 395. 397; Faith of the 
Confession, 449; Relation of 
Faith to Election, 560-565; 
where Faith begins, 571. 

Fall, The, consequences of 
103. 

"Families, Old/' 470. 

Family, The Christian, 464- 
472. 

Father. God the, proofs of 
Divinity, 44 sq. ; term as 
applied to God, 58; in crea- 
tion, 61. See also God. 

Father, calling of a, 464, 468. 

Fatherhood of God, 309. 

Fathers, duty of, 464. 

Fathers, The, testimony of, 
12. 

Filiation, 55. 

Flaccians Flaccianism, 99, 
108 sq., 233, 534. 

Forbearance, Christian, 414. 

Foreknowledge 71 sq., 556. 

Forensic Law, 306 sq. 

Form of God, of a servant, 543. 

Forms, Both in Lord's Sup- 
per, 359- 

Freedom of Will, 82, 108; of 
first parents, 98; extent of 
human 232; of new obedi- 
ences, 2;8. 

Free Will, God's, 115. 

Fruits of Faith, 199. 

Fundamental Errors, 384. 



Generation, 55 ; double, 128. 
Gifts of Spirit, extraordinary, 
421. 



Glorified Body, 153, 
Glorification of Christ, 154. 
Glory, distinguished from Sal- 
vation, 543 sqq. ; degrees of, 

548. 

God, existence presupposed, 2; 
revealed in Christ, 3 ; relig- 
ion a communion with, 5 ; 
His two-fold revelation, 7; 
Being and Attributes of, 18- 
41; personality of, 1820; de- 
finition, 20 sq. ; Name and 
Names, 22 sq. ; Attributes, 
23 sqq. ; classification of At- 
tributes, 24; modes of pres- 
ence, 27; God's repentance, 
28 ; knowledge of contingen- 
cies, 31 (see also Foreknowl- 
edge) ; distinctions in Di- 
vine Will, 31 sq. ( ,ee also 
under Specific Attributes, as 
Eternity, Goodness, etc.) ; 
Trinity of, 42-60; Father- 
hood of, 309. 

Goodness of God, 39 68. 

Good Works, see Works, 
Good. 

Gospel, source of, 114-119; 
preparation of, 119-121; con- 
tents, 165; distinguished 
from Law, 298 sqq. ; defined, 
309; not "a New Law," 
309; differences and agree- 
ments with respect to Law, 
309 sqq. ; means of Regenera- 
tion, 232; individualized in 
Sacraments, 202, 311, 312, 
363. and in Absolution, 311, 
399, 422, 441 ; universal 
preaching of, 508 sq. 

Grace, defined, 40; distinc- 
tions in, 40 sq. ; God's to- 
wards fallen men, 114-119; 
imputation of, 209; election, 
out of, 554; universality of, 
116; inamis.sibility, 335; ir- 
resistibility, 227, 335. 

Grace, Kingdom of, 181 sqq. 

Gradual Illumination. 227; 
is Regeneration gradual, 233. 

Greek Church, Trichotomy, 
90; origin of soul, 94. 

Ground, Faith no, of justifica- 



INDEX I. 



619 



tion or Salvation, 234; nor 
of Election, 554 sqq., 564 sq. 

Guardian Angels, 83. 

Guilt, 103, 539. 

Government, in Providence, 

73- 

Governments, Civil, forms of, 

office of, 478 sqq. 

H 

Habits, 254. 

Hades, 536. 

Hardening, 257. 

Harmony of Evangelists, 346. 

Hearing, Faith by, 233. 

Heart, The New, 231. 

Heathenism, office of, in pre- 
paration for Christianity, 
120 sq. ; modern scientific, 
60. 

Heaven, in article of Crea- 
tion, 63 ; into which Christ 
entered, 177; the New, 549 
sq. ; life in, 55T. 

Hebrews, Epistle, 10, 281. 

Hell, Christ's descent to, 152; 
abode of the lost, 532, 535. 

Heresy, Punishment of, 482 
sq. 

Hindrance, in Providence, 74. 

"Historic Episcopate " 412. 

Historical Faith, ii. 

History, purpose of God in, 

69. 

Holiness of God, 41 ; of first 
man, 97. 

Holy Spirit, Divinity of, 48 
sq. ; personality of, 50 sqq. ; 
spiration of, 56; procession 
of, 57; external work (Opus 
ad intra) of, 59; in Creation, 
61; sin against, 113 sqq.; con- 
ception of Jesus, 146 ; in King- 
dom of Grace, 181 sq. ; mis- 
sion of, 183-186; presence in 
Old Testament, 184; miracle 
of Pentecost, 184; "Not yet 
given,' 185; witness of 203 
sq., 276, 301 ; sealing of, 203 
sq. ; presence in man's heart, 
how known, 204; call by, 
215 ; preparatory work of, 
220; illumination by, 222, 



228; regeneration by, 229 
sqq. ; resistance of, 231 ; ac- 
tion on infants, 235; prays in 
the Regenerate, 251 ; renewal 
by, 2^2, 256 ; produces good 
works, 257; no good works 
wrought without, 259 ; works 
through means, 266, 287 sq., 
389 ; inspiration by, 267-273 ; 
the witness to authority of 
Scripture, 275-287 ; works 
only through the Word, 287 
sqq. ; inseparable from the 
Word, 288 sq. ; prayer for 
coming and presence of the 
Spirit, 289 sq. ; Spirit and the 
preached Word, 290 sq. ; Re- 
formed variations of the doc- 
trine, 297; Holy Spirit inter- 
prets the Law, 304 sq. ; in 
Baptism, 329 sq. ; promised 
to children, 333; Holy Spirit 
and the Church, 370 sq., 382 ; 
holiness of Church from, 376; 
union of believers by, 397 ; 
in Divine Decree of Election, 
561 sqq. ; believers anointed 
with, 581 ; enables men to 
understand the Scriptures, 
587; Holy Spirit's part in 
the forming of Dogmas, 4; 
the Holy Spirit and Christian 
experience, 5; in prayer, 16; 
and Word inseparable, 289. 

Holiness of Church, 305, 505; 
of First Man, 97. 

"Homoousios," 54. 

Human Faith, 187; Nature of 
Christ, 124 sqq. 

Humiliation, not synonymous 
with Incarnation 141 ; State 

OF, 1 41 -I49. 

Husband and Wife, 464. 
Hymn Books and Communion 
of Saints, 317, 



Identity, Bodily, 500. 
Ignorance, Natural, 222. 
Illumination, 222-229; 11, 

12, 262, 276, 340. 
Image of God, 95 sqq., 543; loss 

of, 103; transformation into 



620 



INDEX I. 



546, 571. 
Immaculate Conception, 514. 
Immanent Activities of God, 

55- 

Immediate Illumination re- 
jected, 235. See also Enthu- 
siasm. 

Immensity of God, 26. 

Immersion, 328 sq. 

Immortality of First Parents, 
98; of souls, 486 sq., 497. 

Immutability of God, 28 sq. 

Impanation, 351. 

Impeccability, 82 ; of Christ, 
129 sq. 

Imputation two forms of, 
209; of Faith, 210. 

"Impute," meaning of 208. 

Inability, Human, 230 sq., 
242, 259. 

Inamissibility of Grace, 235. 

Incarnation, purpose of, 130; 
presupposes sin, 130; not 
synonymous with Humilia- 
tion, 141 ; implies no change 
in God, 28; peculiar to Sec- 
ond Person of Trinity, 130; 
a mystery, 345. 

Incorporeity, not man's goal, 
486. 

Independence, of God, 24; of 
Christian, 480. 

Individual, in definition of 
person, 53 ; in the Church, 
372, 393', in Kingdom of 
God, 392; and the Gospel, 
393 sq. 

Individualization of Election, 
555; of the Gospel, 210, 311, 

3^3, 393, 422. 
Inequalities of call, 219. 
Inerrancy of Scripture, 3; 10; 

267; 274. 

Infallibility of Pope, 514. 
Infant Baptism, 332-337; In- 
fant Faith, 233-237; 333- 

337- 
Infants, God's work in, 234. 

Infinity of God, 25. 

Infirmities, Human, 128. 

Initiation, Sacrament of, 324. 

Innovations in doctrine, 398 

sqq. 



Inspiration, conception of, 14; 
end of, 9; doctrine of anal- 
ogy of faith, a deduction 
from, 10 ; of writers, 267 sq. ; 
in formation of canon, 268 
sq. ; of Bible as a whole, as 
well as of parts, 268 ; of the 
Communion of Saints, 269 
sqq.; of the truth taught, 272; 
through presence of Christ 
in Scripture. 272 ; faith in 
Christ, foundation of faith 
in Inspiration, 273 ; Inspira- 
tion not confined to the act of 
writing, but continues in 
what was once written, 273; 
distinguished from Enthusi- 
asm, 271. 

Instantaneous, Regeneration, 
233; Renewal, not, 253 sq. 

Integrity, State of, 88. 

Intercession of Christ, 177; 
of Holy Spirit, 251. 

Intercessory Prayer of 
Christ, 176. 

Interpretation of Scripture, 
need of Holy Spirit for, 222, 
224, 281 ; how the Spirit in- 
terprets, 270 271, 275 sq. *, 
Christ as Interpreter, 162, 
and the Key, 273, 280, 286; 
Scripture to be interpreted 
by Scripture, 268, 269, 274, 
283, 285 sqq.; Paul as inter- 
preter, 287 ; Faith as inter- 
preter, 262 ; Christian expe- 
rience as interpreter, 5, 15, 
278; value of Hebrew and 
Greek, 14 sq., 274 sq. ; rules 
for, 292 sq. 

Interpretation, Literal, 343 
sqq. 

Irresistibility of Grace, 277, 

335- 

J 

James, and Paul, on Justifica- 
tion, 213. 

Jesus, Name of, 122; the 
Christ, 123. See Christ. 

Jews, conversion of, 504. 

John, Baptism of, 325 sq.; 
Gospel of, 278. 



INDEX I. 



621 



Judaism, office of, 120 sq. 

Judges, believers as, 520 sq. 

Judgment, The General, 517- 
535; as work of Father, 517 
sq. ; and of Son, 518 sq.; 
angels at, 84, 521 ; who are 
to be judged, 521 ; what are 
to be judged, 522 sqq. ; Judg- 
ment of Righteous "accord- 
ing to works,'' 523 sq. ; ex- 
amination of Righteous, 524 
sq. ; rule of Judgment, 526 
sq. ; "The Books,"' 527; dis- 
tribution of rewards, 529 sqq. ; 
sentence of ungodly, 532; 
end of world, 532 sqq. 

Justice of God, defined, 37', 
forms of, 38; not incompat- 
ible with Love, 519. 

Justification, 206-215 ; a For- 
ensic Act, 206 sq. ; defined, 
207; what Righteousness is 
imputed, 208; meaning of 
"Impute," 208 sq. ; sense in 
which Faith is imputed, and 
justifies, 210; a purely Ex- 
ternal Act, 211; Love cannot 
justify, 211 ; the Exclusive 
Particles, 211 sqq.; James 2: 
21-24, 2I 3 ; Justification not 
gradual, 214; completeness 
of, no degrees, 214. See also 
Faith. 

K 

"Kenosis," 142. 

Keys, Power of, 172, 318, 330, 
425, 436, 440, 442, 461, 463. 
King, Christ as, 179-183. 

Kingdom of Power, 180 sq. ; 
of Grace, 181 sq. ; of Glory, 
182 sq., 540-552 ; of God, 
coming of, 289 sq. 

Knowledge, God's, 30 sq. ; con- 
cerning God, 3, 42 ; of the 
First Man, 97 ; an element 
of Faith, 194; of one's own 
faith, 201. 

L 

Language Question, 374. 
Languages and God's Word. 



( 14 sq., 274 sq. 

"Laos," meaning of, 547. 

Law, The, as Standard, 37, 
101, 260; how violated, 102; 
as preached by Christ, 162 
sq. ; Christ's obedience to, 
172 sq. ; not proper means of 
Call, 218; Illumination by, 
226; Law and Gospel, 9, 193, 
298-311; divisions of Law, 
300; Moral Law, 300-303; 
uses of, 304-306 (see Politi- 
cal, Elenchtical, Didactic) ; 
Forensic and Ceremonial 
Laws, 306-308 ; no certainty 
of Salvation from the Law, 
202 ; conviction of sin by, 
226, 304 sq. 

Laws of Nature, 75. 

Lay Baptism, 318, 331. 

Laying on of Hands, 432. 

Laymen, distinction between 
Laymen and Ministers, 419; 
in extreme cases may bap- 
tize, 318, 331 ; under no cir- 
cumstances may administer 
Lord's Supper, 319, 359, 438; 
rights of, in calling pastors, 
428; qualifications of, 429; 
when they may preach, 430. 

Legislative Justice, 38. 

Lessons of Church Year, 296. 

Levitical Priesthood, 167. 

Life, of God, 29 sq. ; end of, 
70; Life after Death, 485- 
493; Eternal Life, 540-552. 

Likeness of God, 96. 

Limits, Providential, 70 sq. 

Linguistic, Argument, 93; 
Attainments, insufficiency of, 
274. 

Liturgical Regulations, 408. 
Local Presence, 27, 348, 157. 
Logos Sperm atikos, 120, 220. 
Longsuffering of God, 41. 
Lord's Prayer, 58, 395. 

Lord's Supper, 342-369; a Sa- 
crament, 311, 342; not a sac- 
rifice, 358, 399 ; a witness of 
God's Will to an individual, 
312 sqq., 354, Sacrament of 
Confirmation, 324; for nour- 
ishment of spiritual life, 324; 



622 



INDEX I. 



prospective, a preparation for 
our last hour, 324; sedes 
doctrinae, 342 ; elements of 
342 sq. ; words of Institu- 
tion, 343 sqq. ; mode of Pres- 
ence, 349; Consubstantiation 
and Transubstantiation re- 
jected, 350; Sacramental 
Union. 351 sq. ; "Capernaitic 
eating" rejected, 353; sacra- 
mental, as distinguished from 
spiritual eating, 353 sq. ; Di- 
vine Promise, the chief 
thing in the Sacrament, 354 
sq. ; a memorial, 356; main 
difficulty as to Real Pres- 
ence, 357 ; administration, 
359 sq. ; Faith necessary for 
profitable use, 361 ; self-ad- 
ministration, 362 sq. ; Sacra- 
ment of Church Unity, 363 
sq-j 396; prophetic element 
in, 365 sq. ; consecration, 
367; distribution, 368; how 
often to be received, 368; ex- 
clusion from, 440, 459 ; Con- 
fession and Absolution be- 
fore reception, 443 ; a means 
of Renewal. 251 ; a remedy 
of doubt, 566. 
Lost, why some are, 118. 

Love, God's, 39 sqq. ; Love of 
Benevolence, Beneficence, 

Complacency, 39 sq. ; Grace, 
40 ; Mercy, 41 ; Longsuffer- 
ing, 41 ; consistent with Jus- 
tice, 519; argument for Trin- 
ity from, 60. 

Love, Christian, and Faith, 
119 sq. ; and the Law, 303; 
and the Sacraments, 323 ; 
Active Principle in Renewal, 
250; cannot justify, 211. 

Lutheran Church, True and 
Catholic, 398; Rome's criti- 
cism answered, 398 sqq. ; but 
not synonymous with ''The 
True and Catholic Church," 
400 sqq.; not exclusive, 400; 
patience of, 410 sq., 415 sq. ; 
peculiarity of its conception 
of Doctrine. 418; a mean be- 
tween extremes, 418; center 



of, 419; un-Lutheran to hold 
doctrines true for no other 
reason than that they are 
Lutheran, 450. 

M 

Majorities do not decide, 409. 

Man, the goal of Creation, 63; 
as created, 88-100; states of, 
88 sqq. 

Manducation, 352 sq. 

Manuscripts, 15. 

Manna, Sacramental Signifi- 
cance of, 323 ?q- 

Marks of Church, 381 sqq. 

Marriage, Providential Guid- 
ance in, 70; an indissoluble 
contract, 466 ; ceremony, sig- 
nificance of 466 sq. ; the high- 
est calling, 467 sq. ; cultiva- 
tion of character through, 
464; with unbelievers, athe- 
ists, etc., 465 sq. ; bars to, 
467 ; Civil Law with respect 
to ceremony, 484. 

Mary, the Virgin, in what 
sense theotokos (Mother of 
God). 126, 135; worship of, 
contrary to Scripture, 400. 

Means of Grace, no limita- 
tion of God's sovereignty 
involved in doctrine of, 265 ; 
God. as. revealed always 
works through Means, 266; 
the Word the only proper 
Means, 266; the Word as 
Means, 217, 265-298; in Call, 
215 sq., 218; Illumination, 
224 sq. ; Regeneration, 229 
sq., 232 sq., 244; Renewal, 
250 sq. ; Church and, 389; 
Call to Ministry, 425; Ro- 
man Catholic doctrine, 296; 
Reformed doctrine, 297. See 
also Word, Sacrament, Bap- 
tism, Lord's Supper, Law, 
Gospel. 

Mediatorial Office, 160 sqq. ; 
end of, 532. 

Melchisedek, 168. 

Members of Church, 379, 387. 

Memorial, Sacraments as, 
323; Lord's Supper as, 356. 



INDEX I. 



623 



Merits, of Christ, 173, 192; 
Man's, 264 sq. ; "superabund- 
ant," 260. 

Messiah, 122. 

Millennium, 515 sq. 

Ministers, Ministry, 419-446; 
indispensable 404, 420; va- 
riation of forms, 420; not 
priests, 423 ; double represen- 
tatives, 423; Call to, 404, 
424-431 ; election of, 318, 
427, 476; not a self-perpetu- 
ating order, 318, 403^428; no 
Character Indelibilis, < 431; 
no Ministry where ministeri- 
al duties are not performed, 
431; Ordination of, 43 I -5» 
no distinction of grades by 
Divine Authority, 435 ; but 
proper for expediency, 436; 
power only that of Word and 
Sacraments, 437 sq. ; preach- 
ing of, 290 sqq., 438 sq. ; ad- 
ministration of Sacraments 
by, 318 sq., 330, 440; Absolu- 
tion, 441 ; Church Discipline 
cannot be exercised without, 
443, 462 ; external duties of, 
444; deacons and deacon- 
esses ministers, 445 ; conso- 
lation of, 446; doctrinal tests 
of 447 sqq. ; discipline of, 447, 
463; marriage by, 466 sq. ; 
efficacy of Means of Grace 
not affected by irregularity 
of Call, 330 sq., or the char- 
acter, 319, or intention of 
Minister, 319. 

"Mirabilia," 79. 

Miracles, possibility of, 76; 
necessity of, 76; reality of, 
77; objections to refuted, 77', 
classification of. 78; eviden- 
tial value of. 166, 291. See 
also Difficulties, Mysteries. 

Missions, 219, 508. 

Mixed Articles, 496. 

Moral Law, 300 sqq. 

"Musterion," 312. 

Mosaic Account of Creation, 

67. 
Moses, as Prophet, 162. 
Mystical Body, The Church. 



374- 
Mystical Union, 244-247, 132. 

Mysticism, 245, 271. 

Mysteries, 10, 150, 177, 352, 

357, 415, 496, 571, 576 sqq. 

See also Difficulties. 

N 

Name, of God, 22; "in Name" 

and "into Name," 327. 
Natural Law, 301. 
Natural Theology, 7 sq., 19, 

487 sqq. 
Nature, constancy of. 68; 

laws of, 75 sq. ; meaning of, 

108. 
"Nazarene," 147. 
Nestorians, 131 ; controversy, 

135. 
New Heavens and New 

Earth, 533 sq., 549 sq. 
New Life, 301. 
Norms, 260, 448. 
"Not Yet," 185. 

O 

Oath, 474 sq. 

Obedience, Active and Pas- 
sive, 173- 

Objective Faith, 187. 

Objects of Faith, 191 sq. 

Obligation, Confessional, 447 
sq, 451. 

Offences, private and public, 
459- 

Offices, of Christ. 159-183; 
of Church, 419. 

"Old Man/' 249. 

Old Testament, inerrant rec- 
ord of preparatory Revela- 
tions concerning Christ, 3; 
relation of, to the New Tes- 
tament, 6, 9; doctrine of 
Trinity in, 42, 59; prophecy 
of, contrasted with that of 
Christ, 162; republished and 
criticised by Christ, 163 sq. ; 
types, 167; sacrifices, 175; 
Holy Spirit in. 184; call un- 
der the Old Testament, 221 ; 
way of Salvation in. 323; 
Sacraments, 323 sq. ; immor- 



624 



INDEX I. 



tality in, 488; Resurrection 
in, 495 ; New Testament use 
of Old Testament texts, 272. 

Omnipotence, 36, 46, 137 sq., 
140, 145, 158, 352. 

Omnipresence, 26 sq., 46, 48, 
138, 145, 157, 184, 348. 

Omniscience, 30 sq., 46, 48, 
137 sq., 145. See also Fore- 
knowledge. 

Opera ad extra, 59 sq. 

Opera ad intra, 55. 

Operating Grace. 41. 

Opinion, not Faith, 187. 

Optimism, 64. 

Opus Operatum, 319. 

Order, Ministry not an, 318, 

403. 428. 

Orders of Angels, 85. 

Ordinary Providence, 75. 

Ordinate, an attribute of Elec- 
tion, 558 sq. 

Ordination, defined, 431 ; not 
divinely commanded, 432; an 
ecclesiastical ceremony, 432; 
by whom administered, 433 ; 
congregational, 434; "sine 
titulo," 435 ; no Character 
Indelibilis, 431. 

Organization of Church, 
gradual growth of, 420; 
mode of, an Adiaphoron, 
405 sq., 411 sq. ; provisional, 
j.29 sq., 476. 

Oriental, accounts of Crea- 
tion, 67. 

Organism, Holy Scripture an, 
268, 281. 

Original Sin, ioi-iio; as act, 
102 ; as state, 102 sqq. ; pun- 
ishment of, 103 sq. ; Mediate 
and Immediate Imputation, 
105 ; negative and positive 
elements, 106; universality 
of, 106 sqq. ; error of Flacius, 
108 sq. ; error of Rome, 109 
sq. ; fruits of, no. 



Pantheism 19, 20, 42, 60 77. 
Paradise Regained, 543. 
Parish Boundaries 438. 
Particular Churches, 404. 



Passion, of Christ, 84, 129, 

147. 
Passive Obedience, 174. 

Passover, 323. 

Pastor. See Minister. 

Pastoral Care, 440 sq. 

Pastorate, Local, 431, 438. 

Patriarchs, Faith of, 121. 

Peculiarities, Personal 53 

sqa. 
Pelagianism. 244. 
Penalties, Church, 465. 
Penitence, 238. 
Penitentiary, for the guilty 

in a divorce suit, 466. 
Perfectionism, 254 sq. 
"Perichoresis," 5?. 132. 
Permission, of Providence, 

33, 73- 

Perpetuity of Church, 2>77- 

Persecutions, 510 sq. 

Person, defined, 18, 52 sqq. ; 
God as, 18 sq. ; and Natures, 
127. 

Personality, elements of, 52, 
59; of Man, 96; continuance 
of, after death, 488, 491. 

Personal Activities, 59. 

Personal Propositions, 132. 

Person of Christ, the great- 
est miracle. 77; doctrine of, 
122-140. See Anhypostasia, 
Enhypostasia Consubstantial, 
Perichoresis, Communion of 
Natures, Communicatio Idi- 
omatum. 

Pharisaism, 261. 

Philosophical, arguments, 59; 
terms, inadequacy of, 53. 

Platonism, 79, 89. 

Political Use of Law, 304. 

Politicians, Ecclesiastical, 

409, 481. 

Politics, Limitations of, 480 
sq. 

Polytheism, 19, 42. 

Pope, Is he antichrist, 513 sqq. 

Power of Keys, see Keys, 
power of; of Jurisdiction, 
437; of Order, 437 sq. ; Ex- 
ternal and Internal, 437. 

Powers, inability of Man's, 
230, 242, 259.. 



INDEX I. 



625 



Practice, the end of doctrine, 
17, 456. 

Prayer, essential to a Theolo- 
gian, 16; a habit as well as 
act, 16; a work of the Spirit 
within man, 251 ; prompted 
by the Spirit, 251 ; the voice 
of Faith, 252; always based 
on a specific promise, 252 ; 
elements of Prayer, 253 ; 
Prayer for Spirit preceded 
by gift of Spirit, 289; Prayer 
in Ordination, 432 ; Prayer 
not a Sacrament, 317; Pray- 
er, public, a form of preach- 
ing, 291. 

Preaching, different forms of, 
290 ; efficacy, whence, 291 ; 
not properly preaching, but 
the Word as preached that 
is a Means, 293 ; center of 
Preaching, 294 ; true propor- 
tion in Preaching, 295 ; of 
Law. 163, 185, 306; a Mark 
of Church, 382 sq. ; belongs 
to the Ministry, 438; of lay- 
men and theological stu- 
dents, 430 ; topics of, 294, 
438 sq. ; what is meant by 
"Preaching Christ,*' 439. 

Preaching to the Dead 151 
sq.. 492. 

Predestination, proper place 
for its treatment, 119, 553; 
order of, 217; different 
senses of, 553 ; Election a 
synonym, 554; motive for, 
entirely in God. 554; presup- 
poses man's Fall, 554; indi- 
vidual, 555 ; not identical 
with Foreknowledge, 555 sq. ; 
in what sense dependent on 
Foreknowledge, 556; abso- 
lute or conditional, 577 sqq. ; 
"in Christ," 559; relation of 
Faith to Predestination, 560- 
565 ; parallel between Predes- 
tination and Justification, 
560-562 ; factors from which 
a proper statement is to be 
construed, 563 sq. ; can an 
elect person fall? can he 
know whether he is elect, 565 ; 



relation of Reprobation to 
Predestination, 567 ; why 
Predestination is particular, 
567 ; the doctrine not to be 
ignored, 569 sq. ; consolation 
from, 570; dangers of 571; 
not to be investigated from 
the Secret Will of God, but 
from the Gospel, 572-580; 
the central doctrine of Re- 
formed system, 419. 

Predetermination, 71 sq. 

Pre-existence Theory, 94. 

Preparation of Redemption, 
119-121. 

Presence, modes of, 27, 348 sq. 

Preservation, 72. 

Presbyters and Bishops, 
identity of, 422 sq. 

Prevenient Grace, 41. 

Priesthood, of believers, 423 
sqq., 58i-595; Levitical, 167; 
of Melchisedek, 168. 

Priests, Ministers not, 423. 

Priest, Christ as, 167-179. 

Primi inter Pares, 436. 

Private Communion, 396. 

Private Confession 440 sqq. 

Procession, of Holy Spirit, 
55 sqq. 

Progress, in Christ's teaching, 
165; in revelation, 488; in 
knoweledge of Holy Scrip- 
ture, 278; in apprehension of 
doctrine, 4; of Church, 378, 
394; of individual, 394. 

Proofs for Existence of God, 

2; for Immortality of the 

Soul, 487. 
Properties, interchange of, 

132. 
Prophecy, figurative language 

of, 349; Interpretation of, 

512. 

Prophet, Christ as, 159-166. 

Protevangelium, 119. 

Providence, 67-79 ; relation to 
Creation, 67 ; proofs, 68 ; ob- 
jects, 69 sqq.; Foreknowl- 
edge, 72 ; Predetermination, 
72; Preservation, 72; Con- 
currence, 72> '■> Government, 
72,', Hindrance, Direction, 



626 



INDEX I. 



74; special Providence, 74; 
Laws of Nature, 75 sqq. ; 
Miracles, 76 sqq. ; Providence, 
and Renewal. 251 ; Provi- 
dence and Holy Scripture, 
268; Providence and Church, 
278; Providence and Call to 
the Ministry, 428. 

Psalms, Book of 15, 278, 293; 
Psalms and Christian testi- 
mony, 414, 

Psychical Body, 154. 

Psychological Argument for 
Unity of the Race, 93. 

Ptoiemaic System, 65. 

Punishment of sin. 103 ; Pun- 
ishment and Christ's Satis- 
faction, 172 ; Church, 462 
sqq. ; Future, degrees of, 531, 
540; classification of, 537; 
endlessness of, 537 sqq. 

Purgatory, 172, 260, 491 sq. 

Purpose, The Divine, 119, 
552-580. 

Q 

Quatenus, Subscription to, 
Confessions of Faith, 450 sq. 

Quia Subscription to Confes- 
sions of Faith, 451. 

R 

Reading of Word, 16 sq., 
291 sq. 

Real Presence, 349. 

Reason, Instrumental and 
Normative uses of, 11; and 
Revelation, 10. 

Reconciliation, Doctrine of, 
178 sq. 

Red Sea, Passage of, 2> 2 3- 

Redemption, Order of, 8, 64; 
preparation of, 119 sqq.; 
meaning of, 169; universal- 
ity of, 341 ; plan of, 552. 

Reformation, Starting point 
of, 172; and Greek Testa- 
ment, 239. 

Reformed, The pecuilar type 
of doctrine and life, 418 sq. ; 
central doctrine, 419; teach 
Dichotomy, 90; Creationism, 



94; on Descensus, 150; Right 
Hand of God, 159; Means of 
Grace, 297 ; breaking of 
bread, 343 ; persecution of, 
condemned by Formula of 
Concord, 402. 

Regenerate, use of the Law 
by, 305 ; the true members 
of the Church, 371 sq. 

Regeneration, 229-244, 335, 
22)7', distinguished from Jus- 
tification and Renewal, 248; 
Regeneration and the Gos- 
pel, 310. See also Faith, 
Baptism. 

Reign of Christ, 159. 

Religion, 5 sq., 18 sq. ; Com- 
parative, 93; Natural, 7 sq., 

19. 

Remunerative Justice, 38. 

Renewal, Renovation. 247- 
265 ; distinguished from Re- 
generation and Justification, 
248; Love, the active prin- 
ciple of, 250; Means of, 250 
sqq. ; Prayer and Renovation, 
251 sqq. ; never perfect in this 
life, 254 sq. ; relation of 
Good Works to Renovation, 
2 55 sqq. ; perfection of, in 
next world, 543. 

Reordination, 434. 

Repentance, 238 sqq. ; and Re- 
generation, 241 ; and Faith, 
240; after Death, no, 492. 

Repenting, of God, 28. 

Repletive Presence. 27 sq. 

Reprobation, 553, 567. 

Resist, power to, 231 sq., 289, 
320. 

Responsibility, individual, 

479- 

Rest, The Heavenly, 551 sq. 

Restoration of Faith, 201. 

Resurrection of Christ, An- 
geis at, 84; Christ's Resur- 
rection Body, 153 sq. ; argu- 
ments from, 123, 155 sq. ; 
174 sq. ; preaching of, 155 sq. ; 
its place in Apologetics, 123, 
155 sq., 174 sq., 345; not a 
satisfaction 175. 

Resurrection of the Dead, 



INDEX I. 



62J 



494-504 ; New Testament 
proofs, 494 sq. ; value of Old 
Testament testimonies, 495; 
cannot be proved by Natural 
Theology. 496 ; Resurrection 
by a new act of God, 497 ; 
peculiarly a work of the 
Son, 497; universality of, 
498 sq. ; properties of Resur- 
rection Body. 499-503. 

Retributive Justice 38. 

Revealed Law, 301. 

Revealer, Christ the only, 161 
sq., 580. 

Revelation, a miracle, 76', 
Natural, defects of, 7 19; 
limitations. 42, 60, 222; use, 
8 ; Supernatural, grades of, 
3, 162, 280, 488 ; incomplete 
before Christ, 162 ; known 
only through Christ, 578 sqq ; 
hence Christ is "the Book of 
Life," 527; synonymous with 
"Word," 266; Holy Scrip- 
tures, record of, 3, 267 ; in- 
adequacy of philosophical 
terms to express, 53; no real 
antagonism between Reason 
and Revelation, 10, or Sci- 
ence and Revelation, 64 sq. ; 
Revelation of God in Christ, 
a presupposition of The- 
ology, 3. 

Rewards of Christ, 173 ; of 
Good Works, 263, 529 sqq. 

Right Hand of God, 157 sq., 
348 sq. 

Righteousness, an element of 
Image of God, 97 ; in what it 
consists, 174; imputed, 208. 

Rites, diversity of, 374, 406. 
See also Adiaphura. 

Roman Catholics, peculiar 
type of doctrine and life, 
418; doctrine of Church the 
center, 418; externalism and 
materialism of, 418; Dichot- 
omy, 90; Creationism, 94; on 
concupiscence of the bap- 
tized, 109; Limbus Patrum, 
152; assurance of Faith, 213; 
Evangelical Counsels, 260; 
Means of Grace, 296; Com- 



munion in one form, 359; 
name of Church, 376; Marks 
of Church. 386; claims to 
antiquity refuted, 399; cata- 
logue of innovations, 400; 
salvability of, 400 ; on Char- 
acter Indelibilis, 431 ; auricu- 
lar confession, 442; Purga- 
tory, 491 ; Antichristic ele- 
ments in, 513 ; Immaculate 
Conception and Infallibility 
of Pope, 513. 

Romans, Epistle to, place of, 
285; argument of, 303. 

Rule of Faith, 13. 



Sabellianism refuted, 50, 54., 

Sacerdotal Prayer, 176. 

Sacramental Presence, 349. 

Sacraments, 311-324; defined, 
311; number, 312; peculiar 
office, 312 sqq. ; distinguished 
from Sacrifice, 314; essen- 
tials, 315; Confirmation and 
Ordination, not Sacraments, 
316 sq. ; administration, 318 
sq., 436. 438, 440; efficacy. 
319 sqq. ; chief purpose, 321 ; 
as Means. 266 ; Signs, 322 ; 
Marks of Church. 322. 382 
sqq. ; Memorials of God's in- 
tervention, 322 ; of Old Tes- 
tament, 323 sq.; 345; Sacra- 
ments and Community 
thought, 398; right use of, 
406; Regeneration by, 233 ; 
Renewal by. 251. 

Sacrifice, defined, 307 sq. ; dis- 
tinguished from a Sacra- 
ment, 315; an act of man di- 
rected towards God. 358; 
distinction between Propiti- 
atory and Eucharistic, 358 
sq. ; Christ's, the only Propi- 
tiatory, 175, 358 ; Lord's Sup- 
per- not a Sacrifice, but > : its 
reception in faith a Euchar- 
istic Sacrifice, 3^8 sq. 

Sagas and Traditions, 931- 

Saints, Old ■ Testament,. 323 
sq., 345 ; Communion of 374, 
381 sq., 390 sqq. ; congregation 



628 



INDEX I. 



of, 370, 38 1 sq. ; invocation 
of, 400. 

Salvation, of those before 
Christ, 121 ; and the Church, 
388 sq. ; distinguished from 
Glory, 543 sqq. 

Sanctification, synonym of 
Renewal, 247-265 ; theory 
of Perfect, 254 sq. ; theory of 
Instantaneous, 253. 

Satisfaction for Sin, 168-175. 

Schools, Christian, 471 sq. 

Science, defined, 1 ; and Revel- 
ation, 11, 64 sq. ; and Scrip- 
ture, 274. 

Scientific Hypotheses, 93. 

Scripture, Scriptures, Holy, 
Furnishes material of The- 
ology, 2 ; record of Revela- 
tion, 3, 267 ; seed of Life, 4, 
273; perspicuity, 10, 14; in- 
terpretation according to 
Analogy of Faith, 10; 
Church and Scripture, 12; 
the only standard, 13; lan- 
guages of, 14; Christian ex- 
perience as interpreter, 15, 
277 ; study of, 16 sq., 291 sq. ; 
authority, 103 ; Holy Spirit 
as interpreter, 224; inspira- 
tion of, 267-274; test of 
claims of, 274, 278; self-evi- 
dencing, 275 ; organic rela- 
tion, 280, 285 ; uncritical 
views condemned, 282 ; acci- 
dents of, 287 ; silence of, 283 ; 
variations of, 283; obscurity, 
283; Divine element in, 284; 
human element in, 267 ; doc- 
trine of Incarnation the Key 
to that of Scripture, 267 sq. 

Sealing by the Spirit, 203 sq. 

Seals, Sacraments as, 313, 322. 
Second Causes, 79. 
Second Coming, 504-517, cen- 
ter of the Christian's hope, 

505 sq. ; goal of Creation, 
506; questions as to time, 

506 sq. ; Signs of (a) Per- 
petual, (b) Immediate, 507 
sqq.; not two-fold, 515; char- 
acteristics of, 516 sq. 

Second Death, 535, 



Secret Will of God, 34, 576 
sqq. 

Sectarianism, 411 sq. 

Secularism, 416 sqq., 510. 

Sedes Doctrinae, 9, 213, 242. 

Self-communion, 362. 

Self-examination, 189, 201 
sqq.; 360; abuse of, 205. 

Semi-Pelagianism, 244. 

Sending of the Spirit, 67. 

Sentence, at the Judgment, 
526. 

Separatism, 413 sq. 

Sermon on Mount, signifi- 
cance of, 163. 

Sermons, subjects of, 294, 439. 

Session at the Right Hand 
of God 157-150. 

Seven, The (Acts 6:3), 444. 

Sign, The Word as a, 297. 

Sign, Will of, 33 sq. 

Signs, Sacraments as, 313 sq., 
322. 

Signs of Christ's Return, 507 
sqq. 

Simplicity of God, 2$, 27, 51. 

Sin, 101-114; defined, 101 ; sin 
of Angels, 86; Original, 101- 
110; sin of Adam, 102; guilt 
and punishment, 103 sqq. ; 
imputation, 105 ; elements of, 
106; universality, 106 sq. ; er- 
rors concerning, 108 sqq. ; Ac- 
tual, no sqq.; sin against the 
Holy Ghost, 113 sqq. 

Sinlessness of Jesus, I2g. 

"Six Hundred and Sixty- 
Six," 512. 

Socinians. 27. 

Soldier, Calling of, 473. 

Son, Divinity of, proof, 45 sq. 
See also Christ. Person of; 
in Creation, 61. 

"Sons of God/' 81. 
Sonship, of Christ, 56. 
Soul, and Spirit, 90; mode of 
Presence, 92 ; effects of, 347. 

Spiration, 55 sq. 
Spirit, Holy, see Holy Spirit. 
Spiritual Body, 153, 545; 
sense, 270. 

Spirituality of God, 25. 
Sprinkling, 329. 



INDEX I. 



629 



Standard of Right 37 sq., 
255 260; of Truth, 10, 13. 

State, The, 472-485. 

States of Angels, 82 sqq. ; of 
Man, 88 sqq. ; of Christ, 141- 

159- 

''Strange Work" of Christ' 

164. 

Subjective Faith, 187. 

subpanation, 351. 

Subscription, Confessional, 

what is involved, 449 sqq. 

Substance of God, 51, 53. 

Substantial Presence, 349. 

"Superadded Gift/' 99. 

Supererogation, Works of, 
260. 

Syncretism, 412 sq. 

Synergism, 244, 560. 

Synods, can call, 429, 431 ; Or- 
dination by, 431 ; organiza- 
tion, 404 sq. ; doctrinal de- 
cisions of, 409; external 
power, 444; action of, 481. 



Te Deum, 146. 

Temptation of Christ, 129; 
Angels at, 84; of Man, in. 

Ten Commandments, 301 sq., 
305. 

Terminology, Philosophical, 
inadequacy of, 53. 

Territorial System of Church 
Government, 478. 

Testaments, Old and New- 
distinguished. 298. 

Testimonium Animae 220. 

Testimony of the Spirit, 276, 
558. See also Holy Spirit. 

Tests of claims of Scripture, 
274, 278; of Truth, 13; see 
Standard; Religious, 482. 

Texts, Scripture, abuse of, 
284. 

Theology, Biblical, 1 sq. ; Dog- 
matical, 1 sq. ; Natural, 2; 
presuppositions of, 2-4. 

Theological Course, 426; stu- 
dents, preaching of, 430. 

Theomorphism, 19. 

Theophany, 49. 

Theotokos, 135. 



Threeness of God, in non- 
Christian religions, 42. 
"Throne of His Glory/' 516. 
Time, 62. 

Toleration, Christian, 410 sq. 
Tradition, 14, 405 sq. 
Traducianism, 95. 
Transfiguration, 549. 
Tramps Church, 415. 
Translation, 14. 
Translator, qualifications of. 

275. 
Transubstantiation 349. 

Trial, 17. 
Trichotomy, 89 sq. 
Trinity, The Holy, 42-60, 345. 
Trumpet, The Last, 491. 
Truth, an Attribute of God, 
38; of Christ's Humanity, 

125- 

Turk, The, 482. 

U 

Unbelievers, marriage with, 

465. 
Unconsciousness after Death, 

492. 
Ungodly Resurrection of, 
498 ; Resurrection Body of, 

503- 
Union, Personal, 130 sq-. 

"United Pastors," 435. 

Unity, of Essence, 43; of God, 

43 sq., 51 ; of Human Race, 92 
sq. ; of Church, 374 sq. 

Universality, of Providence, 
69 ; of sin, 106; of Grace, 
115 sqq.; of Redemption, 170 
sq. ; of Call. 117. 218; of 
Merits of Christ, 117. 

Unworthy, Communion of 
the, 347, 352. 

V 

Vicarious Obedience, 174. 
Vicissitudes of Church. 378. 
Violence prohibited, 410, 462 

sq. 
Virgin Birth, 128. 146. 
Visible and Invisible Church, 

379 sq. 
Vision of God, 544 sqq. 
Voting by Order, 480. 



630 



INDEX I. 



Vows, 260. 

Vox Populi, 479. 

w 

Wafers, 343. 

War, 473 sq., 514. 

Water, of Baptism, 328. 

Will, God's, 31 sq., t>7 sq., 62. 

Will, Man's, freedom of, 108, 
118. 

Wills, Language of, 346. 

Wine, in Lord's Supper, 343. 

Wisdom of God, 30 sq. 68. 

Witness of Spirit, 203. 

Word of God, instrument of 
Creation, 62 ; no double, 216, 
287; external, 218; as Means 
of Grace, 265-298; audible 
and visible, 266; more than 
a directory, 288; efficacy of, 
289; Word and Church, 290; 
preached. 290 sqq. ; read, 290 
sqq. ; in Sacraments, 315; in 
Baptism, 316, 330; in Lord's 
Supper, 354; Mark of 



Church, 383 ; appeals to con- 
science, 409; more efficacious 
than resort to violence, 410. 
See also Scriptures, Holy; 
Means of Grace. 

Word, The Personal 126. 

Words of Institution 343 sqq. 

Works, Good, relation to Ren- 
ovation, 255 ; as instrumen- 
talities, 256 sq.; as Fruits, 
257; defined, 257; analysis of 
definition, 257-262; as "Free 
Acts," 258; no Good Works 
before Justification, 259; 
standard of, 260 sqq. ; end of, 
262 ; in what sense "good," 
262 sq. ; rewards of, 263 sq., 
529 sq. ; questions of merit, 
264. 

Works in Judgment, 523 sqq. 

World, The, hi; end of 532 
sqq. 

Worship of Anges, 85. 
Worthiness for Lord's Sup- 
per, 362. 



INDEX II. 



A 

Abelard, Omnipresence, 27. 

Alexandrian School, Tri- 
chotomy, 90. 

Ambrose, origin of soul, 94; 
private admonition, 461. 

xA.pollinaris, error of, 126. 

Apology of the Augsburg 
Confession, on Image of 
God, 97 ; knowledge of sin, 
178; historical Faith, 188; 
office of Faith, 192; Confi- 
dence, 196; inability of Love 
to justify, 211; Renovation, 
257; human inability, 259; 
good works, 263 ; rewards, 
264; natural understanding 
of Law, 301 ; number of Sa- 
craments, 312; definition of 
Sacrament, 312 sqq. ; essen- 
tials of Sacrament, 312; 
Marriage, 472 ; Death, 490. 
distinction between Sacra- 
ment and Sacrifice, 315 ; ex 
opere operato, 319; efficacy of 
Sacraments, 322 ; Eucharis- 
tic Sacrifices, 359; Church, 
370 sq., 372; Marks of 
Church, 381 ; Platonic State, 
393, 402 ; Church divisions, 
398; respect for established 
customs, 405 ; Liturgical 
principles, 408; Church Har- 
mony, 414; Definition of 
Church, 417; subjects of ser- 
mons, 439; Church Disci- 
pline, 458. 

Aquinas, Thomas, Identity of 
Presbvters and Bishops, 423. 

Aristottle, Origin of Soul, 94. 

Athanasian Creed, 51, 126 
sqq. 

Athanasius, Traducianism, 

94. 
Auberlen, K. A., Resurrection 

of Christ, 155 sq. ; Biblical 



63 



Criticism 280. 

Augsburg Confession, Au- 
thority of, 448, 450. not an 
ultimate definition, 450; 
characterized 451, 452. 

God, 20, 51 sq. ; Cause of 
sin. 101 ; Original Sin, 101, 
106; Communicatio idioma- 
tum, 134; Exaltation of 
Christ, 159; Satisfaction, 
171; gift of Holy Ghost, 186; 
Justification by Faith, idS 
sq. ; Historical Faith, 188; 
distinctions between Ground 
and Instruments of Faith, 
190, 192 ; Fruits of Faith, 
199; Means of Grace, 230, 
233, 266 ; Repentance, 240 ; 
human inability, 259; good 
works, 263; Ministry, 318; 
Sacramental Faith, 319; pur- 
pose and significance of Sa- 
craments, 321 ; tests before 
Communion, 360 ; weekly ad- 
ministration of Communion, 
369; Church, 370, 374 sq.; 
Unity of Church, 385 ; 
Church Authority, 403 ; Adi- 
aphora, 405 sqq. ; power of 
Bishops, 437 ; Confession 
and Absolution, 442 ; Church 
Discipline, 458; Marriage, 
472; political and civil af- 
fairs, 473 sq. ; relation of 
Church and State, 473 sqq., 
475; War 474; Resurrection. 
494; Second Coming of 
Christ, 515; General Judg- 
ment, 517. 

Augustine, religious experi- 
ence of, i' sq. ; criticism of 
sceptics, 62 ; Mosaic account 
of Creation, 67 ; Providence, 
68; Traducianism, 96; Free- 
dom of Will. 98; formulas 
of Faith. 198; Conversion. 
243 ; study of Scripture, 278 



632 



INDEX II. 



sq., obscurity of Scripture, 
283 ; definition of Sacrament, 
312; relation of Word to 
Sacrament, 315 ; Sacraments 
of Old and New Testaments, 
324; Infant Baptism, 334; 
significance in Church His- 
tory, 391, 397; oath, 474 sq. ; 
Resurrection Body, 501 ; dif- 
ficulties concerning Resur- 
rection, 504; visibility of 
Christ at Day of Judgment, 
520; Eternal Punishments, 
537 sq. ; vision of God, 545 ; 
vessels of Grace and of 
Wrath 568; Eternal Life, 
550. 

B 

Baier, J. G., on Perichoresis, 
132; the Ascension, 156 sq. ; 
Confidence, 196; definition of 
Faith, 198; Renewal, 256; 
imperfection of Good 

Works, 262; Gospel, 309; 
Heavenly Object in Baptism, 
330 ; Salvation of unbaptized 
children, 341 ; Visible and 
Invisible Church, 380; Pow- 
er of Keys, 440; Divorce, 

467. 
Baldwin, Frederick, Sin 

against the Holy Ghost, 113; 
objects of Justifying Faith, 
194; conversion of the Jews, 

509. 

Bauer, Ferdinand C, Faith of 
Early Church in Christ's 
Resurrection, 156. 

Bechmann, Frederick, Acts 
of Faith, 194; Self-Commun- 
ion, 363 ; Preaching as a 
Mark of Church, 383 sqq. ; 
Predestination 553. 

Bengel, John Albert, Scrip- 
ture as an Organism, 269; 
depth of Scripture, 279; 
Baptism, 327 ; prophetic side 
of Lord's Supper, 366; Scrip- 
ture and the Church, 378. 

Bernard, 397; his hymn. Salve 
Caput Cruentatum, 148; ne- 
cessity of Sacraments, 321. 



Besser, William F., Preach- 
ing, 291 ; prophetic side of 
Lord's Supper, 366. 

Bonar, Horatio, Ground of 
Assurance, 243. 

Brentz, John, Origin of Soul, 
94; Luther's advice to, 204; 
Infant Faith, 236; consola- 
tion of Ministers, 446; New 
Heavens and New Earth, 

534- 
Brooks, Phillips, Prophetic 
Office of Christ, 161 ; Chris- 
tian freedom, 259. 

C 

Calixt, George, on Origin of 
Soul, 94. 

Calovius, Abraham, Provi- 
dence, 72; Ascension, 156; 
Sanctification, 247. 

Calvin, John, Right Hand of 
God, 159; gift of the Holy 
Spirit, 186; Inspiration, 268; 
testimony of Spirit to Scrip- 
ture, 276) the Word a Di- 
rectory, 297 ; Word in Bap- 
tism, 316; Infant Faith, 335 
sqq. ; place of doctrine of 
Predestination, 553. 

Catechism, Large, Character- 
ized,. 451, 452; on Renewal, 
249 ; Good Works, 261 ; 
Church, 290 ; Word in Bap- 
tism, 316; efficacy of Sacra- 
ments, 320; Baptismal Grace, 
338 sq. ; Word in Lord's. 
Supper, 355 ; the Church, 
374; Holiness of Church, 
385 ; Salvation only in the 
Church, 389; Marriage, 469; 
"Old Families," 470; Chil- 
dren in the Church Service, 
470; Christian Education, 

47i. 
Catechism, Small, Character- 
ized, 451, 452; on Call, 215; 
Grace, 230; Repentance, 240 
sq. ; Word in Baptism, 316; 
Word in Lord's Supper, 354, 
361 ; frequent Communion, 
369; Family, 464; condition 
of Church, 477; Resurrec- 



INDEX II. 



633 



tion, 494; Faith in God's 
Work, 565. 
Chalcedon, Creed of, 124, 126, 

128, 139- 

Chemnitz, Martin, a modei 
controversialist, 456; on 
Concupiscence, 109; Com- 
municatio Idiomatum, 140; 
object of Faith, 191, 194; 
Assurance of Faith, 202; Im- 
putation, 209; ground _ of 
Justification, 210 ; Illumina- 
tion, 227 sq. ; Infant Faith, 
237 ; Conversion, 242 sq. ; re- 
wards of Good Works, 263 
sq. ; proofs of Scripture, 276; 
Means of Grace, 297; Vis- 
ible Word in Baptism, 316; 
Catholicity of Church, 377; 
Church as the interpreter of 
Scripture, 390 ; Ordination, 
433 ; Theological controver- 
sies, 456; Church Discipline, 
458; oath, 474 sq. 

Chrysostom, 282. 

Coleridge, Samuel T., Pre-ex- 
istence, 94. 

D 

Damianus, Peter, Hymn of, 

547- 
Dannhauer, John C, Private 

Absolution, 461. 

Delitzsch, Franz, Trichoto- 
my, 90. 

Dietterich, Conrad, Predes- 
tination, 553. 

Dorner J. A., Activity in 
Heaven, 552. 

Decrees of Trent, Justifica- 
tion, 213. 



Ephesus, Decree of, 135. 
Erasmus, Desiderius, 16. 

F 

Fecht, Christian, Church 
Discipline, 458. 

Flacius, Matthias Illyricus, 
Image of God and Original 
Sin 99, 108 sq., 233, 534; 



work of Holy Spirit, 270; 
Relation of Word to its con- 
tents, 272. 
Formula of Concord, Charac- 
terized, 452 sq. ; on Holy 
Scripture, 13; Creation, 95; 
Original Sin, 107 sqq. ; uni- 
versality of Grace, 116; 
Man's Will, 118; Commnni- 
catio Idiomatum, 134, 137; 
Decensus ad Inferos, 150 sq. ; 
Preaching of Law, 164; obe- 
dience of Christ, 173; office 
of Faith, 192 sq. ; Assurance 
of Faith, 201 sq. ; Imputed 
Righteousness, 208; ground 
of Justification 210; exclu- 
sive particles, 212; no double 
Word, 216; diversity of re- 
sults of Call, 217; inequali- 
ties in Call, 218; need of Il- 
lumination, 222 ; prayers of 
Saints, 223 ; natural hatred 
of God, 223; mode of Illum- 
ination, 224; man's inability, 
230 sq., 242, 281 ; Means of 
Grace, 232, 234; Regenera- 
tion, 234; Enthusiasm, 244; 
Mystical Union, 245 ; Re- 
newal, 249, 258; Afflictions, 
251; Freedom, 258; efficacy 
of Word, 291 ; read Word, 
291; Law and Gospel, 299; 
use of Law, 305 ; definition 
of Sacrament, 313; interpre- 
tation of words of Institu- 
tion, 345 ; modes of Christ's 
Presence, 348 ; Faith in 
Christ's Words, 352; Oral 
Manducation 352 ; prepara- 
tion for Lord's Supper, 362; 
consecration of Elements, 
367 ; Augsburg Confession, 
448; Confessions of Faith, 
450; Resurrection, 494; "The 
Books," 527 ; Foreknowl- 
edge, 556 ; Election and Pre- 
destination, 555, 557, 558, 
570, 57i. 



Gerhard, John, Image of God, 
96; Humiliation, 146; Cir- 



634 



INDEX II. 



cumcision of Christ, 146; 
dying words of Christ, 149; 
miracles, 78, 166; Illumina- 
tion, 224; Mystical Union, 
246 ; Salvation of unbaptized 
children, 341 ; Self-Commun- 
ion, 363; Unity of Church, 
374; preaching as a Mark of 
Church, 384; Call to Ministry, 
427 ; Ordination, 432 sq. ; 
grades of Ministers, 436 sq. ; 
Church Discipline, 459. 461 ; 
Last Trumpet, 498 ; Resur- 
rection Body, 501 ; Glory of 
the Second Coming, 516; 
examination at Judgment, 
524 sqq. ; the Sentence 526; 
destruction of the World, 
534; Eternal Punishment, 
536, 540 ; relation of Faith to 
Election, 561 sqq. ; grounds 
of assurance 566; Rom. 9: 
15 sqq., 568 sq. ; Matt. 22:14, 
572-6. 
Gerhardt, Paul, Hymn of 

570. 
Gregory of Nyssa, Traducian- 
ism, 95. 

H 

Hackenschmidt, existence of 
Church as a matter of Faith, 
380. 

Harless, Gottlieb C. A., pro- 
phetic character of Lord's 
Supper, 365. 

Harms, Claus, Formation of 
canon, 271 ; Bible and 
Church, 378. 

Harnack, Theodore Test of 
Scripture, 273. 

Heerbrand, Jacob, destruction 

of the World, 535. 
Helmuth, J. H. C, 277. 

Hollaz, David, Communica- 
tio Idiomatum, 138; Conver- 
sion, 228; Illumination, 262; 
Good Works, 257 ; Self-Com- 
munion, 362; consecration of 
Elements, 367; the Lutheran 
Church, 400; lay preaching, 
430; preaching of students, 



430. 

Hooker, Richard, Consubstan- 
tiation, 357. 

Hunnius, Aegidius, Conver- 
sion of Jews, 509. 

Hutter, Leonard, Reconcilia- 
tion of Paul and James, 
214; Self-Communion, 363; 
Church. 375 sq. ; refutation 
of charges against Lutheran 
Church, 378 sqq. ; destruction 
of the world, 535 ; place of 
Predestination, ^,^3. 



Irenaeus, Origin of Soul, 90. 



Jerome, Dichotomy, 90; Ori- 
gin of Soul 94; Scripture as 
an Organ, 269; Bishops, 421. 

Justin Martyr, "Logos Sper- 
matikos," 220. 

K 

Kahnis, C. F. A., Origin of 
Human Race, 93; Communi- 
catio Idiomatum 140; Mys- 
tical Union, 246; foundation 
of doctrine, 450; Theological 
proof for Immortality, 487; 
Chiliasm, 516. 

Kant. Immanuel. Origin of 
Soul, 94. 

Kaehler, M., Mystical Union, 
245; the True Church, 270; 
definition of Church, 371. 

Kliefoth, Theodore, proof for 
Immortality, 288; state after 
Death, 490; Judgment, 523; 
New Heaven and New 
Earth, 535- 

Koenig, J. F., Confidence as an 
element of Faith, 195; Im- 
putation of Faith, 210. 

Krauth, Charles Porter- 
field, Inspiration 267 sq. ; 
Scripture as an Organism, 
269; uncritical Polemies con- 
cerning the doctrine of 
Scripture, 282. 



INDEX II. 



635 



L 

Liddon, H. P., Prayer, 253; 
Endlessness of Punishment, 

538. 
Lightfoot, J. B., Episcopate, 

423- 
Lombard, Peter, Satisfaction, 

170 ; Resurrection Body, 500. 

Lowell, James Russell, 
verses quoted, 397. 

Luthardt, Christian Ernst, 
sphere of Dogmatics, 4; 
Body, 89 ; Scripture as an 
Organism, 268 sq. ; silence of 
Scripture, 287; distinction 
between Universal and Par- 
ticular Church, 400. 

Luther, Martin 15 sq., 391 
sq., 398, 410. 

Traducianism, 95 ; Image 
of God, 96; Predestination, 
119, 576-580; Communica- 

- tio Idiomatiim, 134; Form of 
God, 143 ; Form of a servant, 
143 sq. ; ''Fashion as a man," 
144 ; "Humbled Himself," 
144; Prophetic Office of 
Christ, 161 ; Satisfaction, 
171 ; gift of the Holy 
Ghost, 185 ; definition of 
Faith, 187 sq. ; Divine 
Faith, 188; Fruits of Faith, 
199; Assurance of Faith, 
204, 213 ; no Salvation with- 
out Faith, 205 ; Prayers of 
Saints, 223; Repentance, 239; 
XCV Theses, 240; passivity 
of Man's Will, 242; Mystical 
Union, 245 ; inner conflicts, 
255 ; Christian Freedom, 259 ; 
Good Works, 259 sq., 262; 
Works of Supererogation, 
261 ; necessity of Word, 267 ; 
spiritual sense of believers, 
270; Christ in Scripture, 272; 
Epistle of James, 27s, 281 ; 
knowledge of Scripture, 277; 
distinction between Inner 
and Oral Word, 288; effica- 
cy of read Word, 290; 
Psalms, 293; reading Scrip- 
ture, 293; Crucifix, 294; 
Law and Gospel, 299; use of 



Law, 304; Term, ''Sacra- 
ment," 312; number of Sa- 
craments, 312; significance 
of Sacrament, 314; John's 
Baptism, 325 ; administration 
of Baptism, s 2 7 I perma- 
nency of Baptismal Cove- 
nant, 338 ; 1 Cor, 10 : 16, 347 ; 
John 6:53-58, 342; Bodily 
Presence in Lord's Supper, 
348; Sacramental Mandu- 
cation, 354; Word in the Sa- 
craments, 354 sq. ; pledge in 
the Lord's Supper, 357; 
Communion of believers in, 
364 sq ; Violence in matters 
of Faith, 410, 462 sq. ; elec- 
tion of Pastors, 429; what 
makes a Minister, 431 ; sub- 
jects of sermons, 439; Theo- 
logical controversies, 456; 
Christian schools, 471 ; pun- 
ishment of Heresy, 483 ; Life 
after Death, 491 ; Eternal 
World, 493; Christ as Judge, 
519; New Heavens, 534; 
New Earth, 535. See also 
Catechisms, Schmalkald Ar- 
ticles. 

M 

Martensen, Hans Lassen, 

Eternal Life, 552. 
Melanchthon, Philip, 15 sq., 

392. 

Definition of God, 20 sq. ; 
Faith of Patriarchs, 121 ; 
Prophetic Office of Christ, 
161 ; exclusive particles, 212 
sq. ; Conversion, 244 ; works 
of Supererogation, 261 ; pres- 
ence of Holy Spirit in Scrip- 
ture, 273 ; Epistle to Ro- 
mans, 585 ; significance of 
Paul, 286 sq. ; Law and Gos- 
pel, 300; number of Sacra- 
mans 285 ; significance of 
Sacraments, 313 sq. ; John's 
Baptism, 2> 2 ^\ permanency of 
Baptism, 338 sq. ; Mysteries, 
352; Visible and Invisible 
Church, 379; Marks of 
Church, 381 sq. ; Marriage, 



6 3 6 



INDEX II. 



466 ; Divorce, 466. See also 
Augsburg Confession, Apol- 
ogy- Appendix to Schmal- 
kald Articles. 
Meyer, H. A. W., Trichotomy, 

QO. 

Mueller, Julius, Origin of 

Soul, 94. 
Muhlenberg, Henry Mel- 

chior, 420. 
Musculus, Wolfgang, on 

Tim. 2: 14, 117. 

N 

Neander, J. A. W., Trichoto- 
my, 90. 

Nice, Decrees of, 409. 

Nicolai, Philip, Final Confla- 
gration 534. 

Notker, Sequence of, 490. 

O 

Oettingen von, Alexander, 
proofs of Scripture, 276; 
Salvation outside of Church, 
389 sq. 

Olshausen, Hermann, Tri- 
chotomy, 90. 

O0STERZEE VAN, JAN JACOB, 

Church Year, 295 sq. ; 
Preaching, 440. 
Origen, 16, Origin of Soul, 94; 
Infant Baptism, 334. 



Pascal, Blaise, Prophetic Of- 
fice of Christ, 161 ; preserva- 
tion of Church, 378. 

Peasants, XII Articles of, 
429. 

Pelagius, Origin of Soul, 94; 
Infant Baptism, 334. 

Peyrere, descent from Adam, 

93- 
Philippi, Frederick A., Holy 

Scripture, 276; character of 
Preacher, 291 ; prophetic side 
of Holy Supper, 366; Church 
and Denominations, 401 ; 
Lutheran distinguished from 
Reformed and Roman Cath- 
olic Churches, 418. 
Philo, Origin of Soul, 94. 



Plato, Trichotomy, 90 ; Ori- 
gin of Soul, 94. 

Q 

Quenstedt John A., Christ's 
sufferings, 148; the Call, 
220; definition of Church, 
372; Antichrist, 514; partic- 
ularity of Election, 558. 

R 

Reuchlin, John, 16. 

Rohnert, W., children of Cov- 
enant, 334; proofs for Im- 
mortality, 488; Second 
Death, 536; joys of Heaven, 

SSL 
Rothe, J. A., Hymn of, 570. 



Sachse, Julius F., Historical 
Fact quoted from his ''Ger- 
man Sectarians of Pennsyl- 
vania," 512. 

Sartorius, Christian, Virgin 
Birth, 146; Communicatio 
Idiomatum, 140. 

Saur, Christopher, applica- 
of doctrine of Antichrist, 
512. 

SCHAEFFER, CHARLES F., MyS- 

tical Union, 246; signs pre- 
ceding the end, 507. 

Schelling, Frederick W. J., 
Origin of Soul, 94. 

Schmalkald Articles, char- 
acterized, 451, 453- 

Trinity, 53 ; Means of 
Grace, 266; Lay Baptism, 
331; Word in Baptism, 316; 
Power of Keys, 318; Self- 
Communion, 362 ; definition, 
of Church, 370; Holiness of 
Church, 376; Call and Ordi- 
nation of Ministers, 428; 
grades of Ministers, 435 ; 
Confession and Absolution, 
443 ; enumeration of sins, 
443; Church Discipline, 458; 
Power of the Keys, 462 sq. ; 
Antichrist, 513. 

Scotch Confession, Church, 

37i. 



INDEX II. 



£>37 



Shedd, William G. T., Origin 

of Soul, 94. 
Smith, Henry B., Origin of 

Soul, 94. 
Stearns, Lewis F., Origin of 

Soul, 94. 
Strong, Augustus H., Origin 

of Soul, 94. 
Spaeth, Adolph, Relation of 

Miracles to the Word, 166. 
Spener, Philip Jacob, Infant 

Faith, 236. 
Staupitz, John, 391 ; Predes- 
tination, 578. 



Tauler, John, 391. 

Teaching of the XII Apos- 
tles, Mode of Baptism 329. 

Tertullian, Trinity, 42 ; Di- 
chotomy, 90; Traducianism, 
95 ; Testimony of the Soul, 
220. 



Thomasius, Gottfried, "The 
Church as a Communion," 
313- 

Turretine, Francis, Satisfac- 
tion, 162. 

Tyndale, William, Fruits of 
Faith, 199; reading Scrip- 
ture, 293. 

W 

Walther, C. F. W., Church 

Discipline, 459. 
Watts, Isaac, Passion Hymns 

of, 135. 
Westminster Large Cate- 
chism 21 sq. 



Zwingli, Ulric, Means of 
Grace, 297 ; distinction be- 
tween Visible and Invisible 
Church, 379. 



